H 



I 



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Book__ ; 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



ITALY 



IN 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



AND THE MAKING OF 









AUSTRO-HUNGARY AND GERMANY 



BY 



V^ 



ELIZABETH WORMELEY LATIMER 

AUTHOR OF "FRANCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," "RUSSIA AND 

TURKEY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," "ENGLAND IN THE 

NINETEENTH CENTURY," "EUROPE IN AFRICA IN 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," ETC. 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 

1896 



K- 



9 V 5 



Copyright 
By A. C. McClurg and Co. 

a.d. 1806 



NOTE. 

I HAVE stated, I think, several times in this book 
why the history of Italy is very hard to write. I 
need not repeat my reasons here. 

It had been my intention to say to my large circle 
of readers (who seem almost my personal friends) 
that " Italy" would be the last volume in this Nine- 
teenth Century series. Very probably it may be so. 
Yet, when I consider how picturesque a subject 
Spain would be, with its war of the Constitution ; 
its Carlist struggles; the sad history of the Spanish 
marriages, and their consequences ; King Amadeo ; 
Alfonso XII. and his sweet wife, Mercedes ; and the 
Regency of Queen Christina; also how acceptable 
some intelligible account might be of the connection 
of Spain with Cuban affairs (if such an account in 
the next twelve months should be procurable), I 
am tempted to undertake it. 

It may seem to some that the chapters on Austro- 
Hungary and Germany have very slight connection 
with the story of Italy, yet I think it needs them. 
Without some brief account of contemporary events 
in those countries, my narrative would look to me 
like an unfinished seam left with a " ragged edge." 



E. W. L. 



Bonnywood, Howard Co., Md., 
October, i8q6. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER p AGE 

I. Italy early in the Nineteenth Century 9 

II. Pio Nono 40 

III. Southern Italy 59 

IV. Daniel Manin and his City 79 

V. Charles Albert and Northern Italy . 92 

VI. Through Casa Guidi Windows .... 114 

VII. The Roman Republic 122 

VIII. Kossuth 150 

IX. Victor Emmanuel 173 

X. The Alliance with France 199 

XI. Garibaldi 221 

XII. Italy made — not completed 245 

XIII. Sadowa. Austro-Hungary 265 

XIV. Mentana 290 

XV. The Last Years of Victor Emmanuel's 

ReiSn 309 

XVI. The Papacy .327 

XVII. Brigandage and Secret Societies . . . 349 

XVIII. King Humbert and his Reign 374 

XIX. The Italians in Abyssinia 395 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Queen Margherita Frontispiece 

Empress Maria Louisa To face page 28 

Pope Pio Nono 40 

King Ferdinand II 64 

General Pepe 84 

King Charles Albert 100 

Field Marshal Radetzky no 

Giuseppe Mazzini 126 

Louis Kossuth 150 

King Victor Emmanuel 173 

Count Cavour 200 

Giuseppe Garibaldi 221 

Urbano Rattazzi 246 

Emperor William 1 266 

Prince Frederick Charles 278 

Emperor Francis Joseph 284 

Princess Margherita (afterwards Queen of Italy) 300 

Cardinal Antonelli 324 

Pope Leo XIII 338 

King Humbert 374 

The Prince of Naples 392 

Francesco Crispi 404 

Marquis di Rudini 416 

The Princess of Naples 424 



ITALY 

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 

TOGETHER WITH 

THE MAKING OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY 
AND GERMANY. 



CHAPTER I. 

ITALY EARLY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

HTHERE is nothing more bewildering in the varied history 
■*■ of the nineteenth century than the story of Italy, and 
nothing at the same time more picturesque, soul-stirring 
and affecting. It is like a drama played on the world's 
stage, which we watch with breathless interest, following 
the moving story through many an act and scene. 

Italy lost her ancient unity after the fall of the great 
Roman Empire. The peninsula became divided into 
sundry small states, each at enmity with its neighbors. 
Charlemagne and his successors, as Emperors of Germany 
and conquerors of the Lombards, claimed jurisdiction over 
Northern and Central Italy, its southern coasts were dotted 
by Greek colonies, each clustered round a city, governed 
by a nearly independent chief who owed nominal allegiance 
to the Emperor at Constantinople. 

Early in the eleventh century some Norman knights on 
pilgrimage chanced to encounter a Greek exile from the 
town of Bari. Moved by his promises and by the story of 
his wrongs, they returned to Normandy and there collected 
a small force for the deliverance of Apulia from its oppres- 
sors. These Northmen did not come in their long ships, 



10 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

but crossed the Alps as pilgrims, and presented themselves 
in Apulia as knights, — horse-riding gentlemen. Their 
number was so small that they failed in their expedition 
against Bari and became a band of free lances wandering 
among the mountains and valleys of Southern Italy. Their 
discipline and prowess were speedily recognized and their 
assistance was sought in every domestic quarrel. They 
soon attracted to themselves other Norman adventurers, 
among whom were the sons of Tancred de Hauteville, — 
not the crusading hero of the " Gerusalemme Liberata," 
but a Norman gentleman, who had built himself a strong 
castle on the southern frontier of Normandy and called it 
Hauteville. 

He had been twice married and was the father of eleven 
sons. His second wife had been a true mother to all these 
lads, and they were strongly attached to each other. As 
they grew to manhood it was agreed amongst them that two 
should remain at home to comfort and support their parents, 
and that the rest should go forth to seek adventures. They 
directed their steps to Southern Italy. Arrived there, they 
soon found themselves allied with certain Greeks in an attack 
upon the Saracens in Sicily. In this war William de 
Hauteville, the eldest son of Tancred, greatly distinguished 
himself. 

Before long, troubles on the mainland recalled this 
William of the Iron Arm to Apulia. There Pope Leo IX., 
feeling his own territories in danger from such restless and 
ambitious neighbors, had invited an alliance with the 
German and Byzantine Emperors against them. A battle 
was fought at a place called Civitella, in which the Pope 
headed his own soldiers. Three thousand Normans routed 
a miscellaneous host, Count William and Count Humphrey, 
sons of Tancred, commanding their countrymen. The Pope 
fled, but was pursued and overtaken by the victorious 
Normans, who crowded round him, kissing his feet and 
imploring his benediction. Such conduct won at once the 
esteem and admiration of the pontiff, who gave up his 
alliance with the Emperors and conceived a warm friend- 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 1 1 

ship for the three elder sons of the house of Hauteville, 
William, Drogo, and Humphrey, who successively became 
the recognized heads of the confederacy of ten counts who 
had won cities for themselves in Southern Italy. 

But the most brilliant of the family was Robert, known in 
history as Robert Guiscard. He was the eldest of the 
younger brothers, a born soldier and statesman, handsome, 
strong, valiant, and a devout churchman, — everything, in 
short, which made up the ideal of a perfect knight in that 
unpolished age. He had come into Italy with a small 
following, but his prowess and prestige soon became such 
that on the death of his brother Humphrey he was raised 
on a buckler by his countrymen and saluted chief of the 
Normans in Italy, and Count of Apulia. 

Pope Leo IX. was dead, but his successor, Nicholas II., 
desirous to secure the friendship of this brave and brilliant 
Norman, " gave him the title of Duke, and the investiture 
of Apulia and Calabria, besides all the lands his sword might 
conquer, both in Italy and Sicily, from schismatic Greeks 
or unbelieving Saracens." Nor did his interest in Robert 
end here. He persuaded the other Normans in Italy to 
acquiesce in his new honors and accept his supremacy. 

The Italian conquests of Robert accord with what was 
called subsequently the kingdom of Naples. The enter- 
prising little republic of Amalfi, and Salerno, the chief seat 
of learning in Christendom at that time, acknowledged 
Norman Robert as their nominal protector, and he regarded 
them both with especial favor. He was at the height of 
his prosperity when Roger, his youngest brother, arrived 
from Normandy. He at once won the affection of his 
elder brother, who seems, however, to have been chary of 
pecuniary aid. Roger had set his heart on conquering 
Sicily from the Greeks and Saracens. He invaded it with 
only sixty followers, but his wife was with him. In after 
years he used to tell how they had had but one mantle, 
which they shared between them. Robert came over to 
help his brother as soon as he felt assured of his success. 
The Mahomedans in Sicily submitted to the conquerors, 



12 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

and the Pope put forth an extraordinary bull, not only 
investing Roger and his heirs with temporal sovereignty in 
Sicily, but making them in that island hereditary legates 
of the Holy See. 

In 1 08 1, ambition prompted Robert Guiscard to attempt 
the conquest of the Byzantine empire. His eldest son, 
Bohemond, best known to us as a crusader, commanded 
his naval forces, but the enterprise was not prosperous, and 
Robert made his way back to Italy. A second time he 
planned an invasion of the Greek empire, and fought the 
battle of Durazzo, when his men first encountered the 
Varangian guard, chiefly composed of Northmen in the 
sen-ice of the Emperor. Robert won the battle, but with 
considerable loss, and died not long after, when his sub- 
jects abandoned all idea of conquering Constantinople, 
and turned their energies soon after to the crusades and 
the crusaders. 

Robert Guiscard was not succeeded by Bohemond, his 
elder son, whose mother he had divorced, but by a younger 
son, named Roger, on whose death Roger, the great Count 
of Sicily, became heir to his Italian dominions and took the 
title of " King of Apulia, Calabria and the Two Sicilies." 
He was the father of a long line of kings, and his succes- 
sor, another Roger, who was only four years old when he 
came to the throne, further increased the renown of his 
family by successes against the Saracens on the coast of 
Africa. That model of all knighthood, Tancred the Cru- 
sader, was nephew of Robert Guiscard on the mother's 
side, and grandson of Tancred de Hauteville, the founder 
of his family. 

The union of Naples and Sicily lasted many years, until 
German emperors interfered, claiming rights to the two 
kingdoms through an ancestress. 

The Pope of that period, not liking the close proximity 
of a powerful Imperial house to his own Roman dominions, 
granted in 1254 the Two Sicilies to Charles of Anjou, 
brother of Saint Louis of France. The tyranny of the 
French led to the massacre of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 1 3 

when Spain, entering into the quarrel, conquered Sicily, 
separating it from Naples and uniting it to the kingdom of 
Aragon. 

The Angevin kings held their often-disputed possession — 
the kingdom of Naples — with a firm hand till 1495. Then 
arose a fierce war between France and Spain for the posses- 
sion of Naples, — a war which wrapped all Italy in a flame, 
and gave renown to the Spanish hero, Gonsalvo de Cordova. 

The rule of the Angevin kings in Naples had not been 
entirely despotic ; the old constitutions granted by the sons 
of Tancred to their subjects were held to be still in force, 
although the feudal system was established, but when, in 
1505, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies became part of the 
Spanish monarchy, diets were no longer convened in Naples, 
the regal power increased, and with it the burdens of tax- 
ation. Things grew worse and worse under misgovernment 
for two centuries. At the Peace of Utrecht (1713) the 
Two Sicilies were again divided. Naples was given to 
Austria, Sicily to Savoy; but seven years later Austria 
acquired Sicily by exchanging for it the island of Sardinia. 

Austria held her new possession only for a short time, 
Spain conquered the two kingdoms, which were then settled 
on the Infant Don Carlos, who, when he ascended the 
Spanish throne in 1759, conferred them on his third son, 
Ferdinand, then a babe, decreeing at the same time that they 
should never again be united to the Spanish crown. 

King Ferdinand was King of the Two Sicilies (in posses- 
sion or in exile) till 1825, which brings his fortunes and 
the fortunes of his kingdoms within the bounds of the his- 
tory which this book is intended to cover. 

The Popes, whatever might have been their political 
influence, were not temporal Italian princes till P6pin 
bestowed upon Pope Stephen II., about the year 755, the 
exarchate of Ravenna, which he had wrested from the Lom- 
bards ; and in the twelfth century Matilda, a pious Countess 
of Tuscany, left her landed possessions — long called the 
Patrimonio di San Pietro — to the Pope, to be governed by 
him, not only as their spiritual head, but as their temporal 



14 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

ruler. But the Emperor of Germany, as the successor both 
of Charlemagne and the Caesars, claimed temporal supre- 
macy over any Italian dominions held by the Pope. This 
led to the celebrated disputes between Guelphs and Ghibel- 
lines. The Guelphs (as all readers of Italian history will 
do well to remember) were the party of the Pope ; the 
Ghibellines were adherents of the German Emperor. 

During the Middle Ages, Northern Italy was studded with 
free cities. The Parisian principle of Communism flour- 
ished in Italy. Each city governed itself and had a little 
tract of surrounding country over which it held sway. 

Each city had its own army, its own alliances, its own 
laws, its own quarrels, its own exiles, and its own ambitions. 
Some cities were Guelph and some were Ghibellihe. And in 
the sixteenth century some were for France, and some for 
Spain. When I speak of Communism, I do not mean that 
in the Middle Ages the class that the French are pleased to 
call " the people " had any share in the Communal govern- 
ment of their native towns. The municipal government of 
these cities was in the hands of citizens, — the burghers of 
the city, — and sometimes one family made itself all-power- 
ful, as the Medici in Florence, the Estes in Ferrara, or the 
Visconti in Milan. The most peaceful part of Italy was 
possibly Piedmont, together with its dependent duchy of 
Savoy; and yet it was the high road over which French 
armies were perpetually pouring south with designs on Milan 
and Naples. Venice and Genoa during those centuries were 
stable republics. Indeed, in the sixteenth century Venice 
had almost advanced herself to be what we should now de- 
nominate a " Great Power." 

Those who have read Dante know something of the work- 
ing of these aristocratic, or rather burghercratic communes. 
They know, too, how ardently Dante desired a United Italy, 
deprecating as he did the evils arising from the feuds of 
rival cities, — rivalries that are only beginning to die out in 
the present generation. Indeed, Mr. Senior, writing in 1 85 1, 
records in his journal that an Italian gentleman had said to 
him that there could never be a United Italy, for that the 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 1 5 

Pisans and the Genoese, the inhabitants of Lucca and 
Parma, the Romans and the Venetians, the Lombards and 
Sicilians, hated each other even more cordially than they 
hated the Austrians. 

Any one who would like to get a good idea of life under 
the communal government of these free cities will find it in 
that most delightful of semi-historical novels Manzoni's " I 
promessi Sposi," or in Benvenuto Cellini's "Memoirs," or 
in George Eliot's " Romola." Or, for those who prefer pure 
history, Sismondi's " History of the Italian Republics " may 
be supplemented by Symonds's " Renaissance," which, how- 
ever, deals principally with art and literature. I do not 
recommend Guicciardini's " History of Italy," remember- 
ing the old story that a cardinal, having betted with one of 
the Popes that no man living had ever been able to read 
Guicciardini's "History" all through, the Pope offered a 
criminal, condemned to death, a pardon if he would accom- 
plish the feat. The man accepted the offer, but at the end 
of the second volume he returned the book, saying that on 
the whole he preferred to meet his doom. 

By the middle of the seventeenth century, Austria had 
established her Ghibelline influence over the greater part 
of Northern Italy. She ruled Lombardy, and her influence 
was strong in Venetia, and the old free cities were hers. Tus- 
cany was governed by an archduke of the imperial house ; 
Parma, Modena, Placentia, Massa-Carrara, and all the rest of 
the little duchies (called at the present day collectively 
Emilia) had rulers devoted to the court and family at Vi- 
enna. But of all the ill-governed portions of Italy, the worst 
were the States of the Church in the centre of the peninsula, 
and tens of thousands of Italians lamented, with Dante of 
old, that the Pope's spiritual authority had been complicated 
by his being a petty temporal Italian ruler. Then came the 
French armies under Napoleon. They swept over Italy. 
The seeds of discontent sown by the oppression and misgov- 
ernment of Austro-Italian princes, began to sprout into a 
desire for the expulsion of foreigners, the establishment of 
constitutional government, and a United Italy. 



1 6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

" No country in Europe," says Mr. Probyn, " was more com- 
pletely revolutionized by the wars and the policy of the first 
Napoleon than Italy. When at length he had become possessed 
of absolute power, all the old governments of the peninsula had 
been overthrown and were replaced by those of his own crea- 
tion. The greater part of the kingdom of Piedmont and of the 
States of the Church, the republic of Genoa, and the duchies 
of Lucca, Parma, and Tuscany were incorporated into the 
French Empire. Eugene Beauharnais was made viceroy of a 
' Kingdom of Italy,' composed of Lombardy, the republic of 
Venice, the duchy of Modena, the Pope's province of Romagna, 
and a portion of Piedmont. The kingdom of Naples received 
Joseph Buonaparte for its sovereign, and then Murat. These 
rulers were understood to act only as lieutenants of the French 
Emperor. Napoleon, in fact, governed the whole country from 
the Alps to the Straits of Messina." 

French rule acted differently upon three classes of society 
in Italy. The peasants hated the conscription, and grudged 
the sacrifices they were compelled to make to support the 
imperial power of France, in which they had no national 
interest. Of the two they preferred the rule of the Austri- 
ans to that of the French. The Austrians were at least 
good Catholics. The Italian nobility, who from generation 
to generation had lived in apathy and idleness, suddenly 
found a stimulus in the many public offices to be filled by 
them under the administration of Napoleon ; while profes- 
sional men and the educated classes, not noble, rejoiced 
in the expulsion of the Austrians, in reforms in every de- 
partment of the government, and in short in the new life 
of activity, prosperity, and hope that sent a thrill through the 
peninsula. 

Not many Italians, however, voluntarily joined the armies 
of Napoleon ; his promise at Milan that " he would make 
something of them, — that he would make them soldiers, 
and would lead them in six months as conquerors to the 
Tower of London," failed to waken their enthusiasm. 
Napoleon's aims were too evidently French ; besides which 
Italians were not prompt to forget that when he had de- 
stroyed the old Republic of Venice in 1797 he had 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. I? 

handed the city over, with insulting words to the detested 
Austrians. 

Napoleon was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lom- 
bardy at Milan, and styled himself the King of Italy. 
The amiable and excellent Eugene de Beauharnais, was 
appointed his viceroy. For a time Eugene was popular, 
but his popularity did not survive the disasters of the 
campaign of Moscow, which fell heavily on the Italian 
contingent. 

Lord Broughton (the John Cam Hobhouse who was the 
travelling companion of Lord Byron) says of Eugene : 

" During the early part of his viceroyalty he had been much 
esteemed for a quality which is seldom found in men of high 
station and moderate capacity, — he listened to good advice, 
and was thus able to extricate himself from many difficulties. 
His conduct towards the Pope, for example, showed how capable 
he was of reconciling the interests of Napoleon with the temper 
of those whom he was called upon to control. He seems, how- 
ever, to have been directed no longer by the same good sense 
or the same wise counsellors, when, during the retreat from 
Russia, he studiously neglected his Italian generals, and thereby 
forfeited the attachment of those on whom he was chiefly to 
depend in the coming struggle." 

Much anti- French feeling was also excited in Lombardy 
by the activity of the Viceroy's ministers, Prina and Mejean, 
in raising the contingent of Italian troops for the campaign 
of 1 813, and endeavoring, by all possible schemes of finance, 
to supply the French Emperor with money. 

After the disasters of this campaign, Murat passed 
through Milan on his way to his kingdom of Naples. His 
money was exhausted, and he borrowed a thousand crowns 
from a Milanese merchant " to enable him," as he said, " to 
return to his capital with the equipment at least of a sov- 
ereign." In a moment of confidence he told this merchant 
that he had a scheme, now that the power of the Emperor 
was broken, of " collecting an army of eighty thousand 
men, marching northwards, raising the patriots in every 
province, and declaring the independence of Italy." The 



IS ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

merchant was a Freemason, and communicated this secret 
to his lodge, whence it was at once made known to Prince 
Eugene, who was Grand Master of the Order in Lombardy. 
This caused bad feeling between Murat and Eugene, who 
had never been strongly attached to each other, and pro- 
duced discord among their partisans. — an independent 
united Italy being the dream of almost all educated Italians. 
When Napoleon sent word to Milan that he released his 
subjects in Italy, and the Italians in his army from their 
oaths of allegiance, it seemed to many that the time was 
propitious for securing this boon. Eugene, on his part, 
meditated putting forth a declaration proclaiming the union 
of the States of Northern Italy, with himself as their consti- 
tutional king and France for their permanent ally. 

But his scheme never reached a definite conclusion. 
Murat was marching northwards : leading patriots among 
the Lombards were already in communication with him ; 
while the Austrians were advancing with promises to 
restore the ancient privileges of the Lombard kingdom, to 
be guaranteed solemnly by the word of the Emperor. 

Affairs became more and more complicated in Northern 
Italy : some men were partisans of Eugene, some of Murat ; 
while some believed the promises of Austria, and Murat had 
already become Austria's ally. England also sent a mixed 
force of English, Greeks, Calabrians, and Sicilians, under 
Lord William Bentinck to take a hand in the affairs of 
Northern Italy, — each party " assuming in turn the same 
generous character of liberators and friends : all professing 
themselves allies in the same pious enterprise, the emanci- 
pation of Italy from a foreign yoke." 

Eugene at the head of sixty thousand men took up arms 
against these various " liberators " ; but he was driven by 
the Austrians into Mantua, where, receiving news of the 
abdication of his stepfather at Fontainebleau, he proposed 
to Austria a suspension of hostilities. Milan was in a fer- 
ment. The Senate was in session. Some senators took 
the part of Eugene ; some proposed a return to the rule of 
Austria ; others proposed to accept an Austrian archduke, 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 1 9 

or any other prince except Eugene, as King of Northern 
Italy. 

A most disgraceful riot took place in Milan on April 20, 
1 814. The mob surrounded the Senate-house, shouting, 
"The country and independence ! Down with the French ! 
Down with Eugene ! " 

The Senate in great alarm dispersed, a nobleman in the 
mob ran the ferule of his umbrella through a valuable pic- 
ture of Napoleon in the Senate-house. The populace grew 
more and more excited. They rushed to the house of 
Eugene's finance minister, Prina, seized him, half stripped 
him and flung him from a window. Wounded and bruised, 
he contrived to escape into a friend's house, but the rioters 
surrounded it, and threatened to burn it down if he did not 
come out to them. He did so, exclaiming, " It matters 
little what you do to me. I am already a victim to your 
fury; but may my murder be your last." 

These were, as it were, his dying words. The populace 
seized him, and beat him to death ; though it has been 
supposed that he retained some life for about four hours, 
while they dragged his body through the streets by torch- 
light with savage execrations. 

When news of the riot in Milan, and of this murder 
reached Eugene, he was utterly disheartened. A few mem- 
bers of the Senate who reassembled when the city became 
quiet, resolved to send a deputation to the Allied Sov- 
ereigns in Paris imploring them to select for them a 
sovereign " whose origin and qualities might make them 
forget the evils of their former governments." Eugene, 
meantime, ignorant of what had been resolved on in Milan, 
published a proclamation, declaring his readiness, if it were 
the will of the people, to take upon himself the cares of 
sovereignty. No notice was taken of this proclamation, — 
it died, as it were, still-born. It was never cancelled, con- 
tradicted, nor acted on in any way. Indeed, the ink with 
which it had been written was hardly dry before Eugene 
had signed with Field-Marshal Bellegarde, the Austrian 
Commander in Chief, on April 23, 18 14, a convention by 



20 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

which he delivered up Mantua and his army to the Emperor 
of Austria. His soldiers were furious when they learned 
this, and proposed to arrest their late viceroy. But he had 
already secretly left Mantua, taking his treasure chest with 
him. 

The Austrian general, when he took possession of his 
prize, appointed a regency, to last until informed of the 
intentions of the Allies. The people still entertained hopes 
that they might secure their independence, — that their 
deputies in Paris might be listened to. They trusted that 
English statesmen might move in their behalf, but Lord 
Castlereagh's only advice was that they should address 
themselves to their master, — the Emperor of Austria. 
The Emperor's answer was that he had conquered Lom- 
bardy and would issue his commands to her people from 
Milan. In vain, in their despair, such authorities as re- 
mained continued to petition for their country's political 
existence. Some counselled a wild scheme of insurrection, 
still hoping that the English, who were holding Genoa, 
would plead their cause. It was hoping against hope. On 
May 23, Marshal Bellegarde issued a proclamation announc- 
ing that Lombardy was taken possession of for the Emperor 
of Austria, and that he himself was appointed President of 
the Regency. 

"When Lord Byron and myself," said Lord Broughton, 
" visited Milan two years after these events, the mistakes com- 
mitted by the principal actors in them were acknowledged by 
all parties ; but concerning the murder of Prina, and the riot or 
insurrection of the 20th of April, all were silent, because all 
were ashamed." 

Venice and her dependencies on terra fir ma, otherwise 
called Venetia, had put herself under the victorious General 
Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797, by an act of abnegation on 
the part of the Great Council which seems almost incredi- 
ble. She surrendered even before surrender was asked of 
her. Her patrician rulers became a provisional govern- 
ment, — a regency under the French Directory ; her 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 21 

Golden Book was burned, together with the ducal ensigns ; 
and a fraternizing feast welcomed the French into the city. 
It was French for five months, and then Bonaparte, disre- 
garding the remonstrances of the French Directory, handed 
Venice and Venetia over to Austria by the Treaty of Campo 
Formio, October 18, 1797. Bonaparte's persistence in 
thus disposing of the ancient republic, which had main- 
tained its position among nations for more than twelve 
hundred years, may have had some connection with the 
plan, at that moment ripening in his head, for the expedi- 
tion to Egypt, and the establishment of himself on the 
throne of the Greek Emperors. Now that one hundred 
years have passed we may see reason to regret that he did 
not accomplish it. A French renegade Emperor in place 
of the Grand Turk might have relieved the nineteenth 
century from many of its difficulties. 

Thus Venice was united to Lombardy. The rule of the 
Emperor of Austria, mild to his native Austrian subjects, 
was one of oppression and repression to all beyond the 
pale. 

In 1820 and 182 1 there were great stirrings of heart 
among educated men in Italy, who had almost all joined 
the secret society of the Carbonari. There were two 
branches of this society, one composed of Red Republi- 
cans, who approved assassination and fomented insurrec- 
tionary movements ; the other, which called itself the 
Society for the Unity of Italy, had for its primary object 
the expulsion of the Austrians. To this society Lord 
Byron belonged, and almost all the men of letters in Italy. 
The Austrian police laid hands on as many of these gentle- 
men as possible in 1820 and 182 1, — among them Silvio 
Pellico, author of the greatly admired tragedy of " Fran- 
cesca da Rimini." He had committed no overt act of 
treason to the existing government, he was implicated in 
no conspiracy, but he was editor of a newspaper in Milan, 
the " Conciliatore," which aimed to keep alive the sparks 
of Italian patriotism. The association to which he be- 
longed required no secret initiation. All the best patriots 



22 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

of Italy were involved in it, and their sole engagement was 
the formula taken on entering its ranks, " I swear to God, 
and on my honor, to exert myself to the utmost of my 
power, and even at the sacrifice of my life, to redeem 
Italy from foreign dominion." 

Silvio Pellico, with other men of culture and refinement, 
was arrested in the autumn of 1820. For eighteen months 
they were kept in Italian prisons, perpetually undergoing 
interrogations, suffering inexpressibly from the fear that in 
the course of these examinations some chance word might 
be wrung out of them which would lead the authorities to 
suspect others. On February 22, 1822, he, with three 
others, was led forth to receive sentence of death on a 
scaffold in the Piazza of St. Mark in Venice ; the sentence 
was then commuted to one of fifteen years' imprisonment 
in chains in the fortress of Spielberg, a convict prison on a 
mountain in Moravia. 

There is no more touching piece of autobiography in any 
language than the " Le Mie Prigioni " of Silvio Pellico 
(" My Prisons ") . It has been translated and re-translated 
into English and other languages. I read it with deep 
emotion when I was a school-girl. It stirred the very 
heart of Christendom. 

" To Spielberg, that rock of sorrow," says the Countess 
Martinengo Cesaresco, "consecrated forever by the sufferings 
of some of the purest of men, Silvio Pellico, with Pietro 
Maroncelli, with nine or ten companions condemned at the 
same time, were the first to take the road. Here they remained 
for the eight years described by the author of ' Francesca da 
Rimini 'in ' Le Mie Prigioni,' a book that served the Italian 
cause throughout the world. Even now, some Italians are in- 
dignant at the spirit of saintly resignation which breathes upon 
Silvio Pellico's pages, — at the veil which is drawn over many 
shocking features in the treatment of the prisoners. They do 
not know the tremendous force which such reticence gave his 
narrative. ' Le Mie Prigioni ' has the reserve strength of a 
Greek tragedy." 

Our countryman, Henry Tuckerman, says : — 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 23 

"The political offenders in Lombardy in 1820 were subjected 
to the examination of commissioners notoriously venal and 
cruel. No opportunity was allowed them to prove their inno- 
cence ; the slightest pretext sufficed to arouse suspicion, and 
when this occurred, the arrest followed. Thenceforth the 
prisoner was allowed no intercourse with his family, his papers 
were seized, his associates were threatened, he was thrown into 
a slimy dungeon, or under burning leads ; allowed only inade- 
quate food, and when sleep, brought on by exhaustion conse- 
quent on these cruelties, came to his relief, he was suddenly 
roused at midnight, and urged, while in a state of half somno- 
lency, to give up the name of a comrade, or to sign a paper 
which would prove his ruin. . . . The great idea derived from 
Silvio Pellico's memorial of his prisons, is that a man of rare 
endowments, of the deepest sensibility, and most pure aims, could 
be forcibly separated from the world of nature and humanity, — 
his sacred birthright, — invested with the livery of crime, denied 
communication with books, subjected to the greatest physical 
discipline, and moral isolation; — and although the author of 
this great wrong is scarcely alluded to, we revert to him for this 
very reason with the deeper indignation, and follow the pen of 
the generous martyr with the most profound sympathy. Wis- 
dom could not have imagined, nor wit fashioned a work so well 
adapted to operate on public opinion, and yet so far from being 
the product of a vindictive mind. It is the simple overflowing 
of a frank and benign spirit, and by virtue of the very resigna- 
tion, patience, love, and truth it breathes, it became a seal of 
condemnation to the Austrian government, and an appeal for 
the Liberals of Italy throughout the civilized world." 

Maroncelli contracted a disease of the leg through the 
hardships he endured ; amputation became necessary, but 
it could not be performed till permission was received from 
Vienna. After his release he went into exile in America, 
where he died, poor, blind, and with the loss of reason. 
Pellico, who died in 1854, devoted his latter years entirely 
to religion. Only men of iron fibre came out as they went 
in. The Spielberg prisoners always wore chains, and their 
food was so bad and scanty that they suffered from con- 
tinual hunger, with its attendant diseases. Unlike the 
thieves and murderers confined in the same fortress, the 
State prisoners were given no news of their families. Such 



24 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

was Spielberg, — "a sepulchre without the peace of the 
dead." 

Meantime, revolutions had taken place in Naples and in 
Piedmont. Of the former, as it belongs to the history of 
Southern Italy, I will tell in the next chapter ; of Piedmont 
it may be proper to speak here. 

The kings of Piedmont and Savoy, or (as they styled 
themselves after the year 1720) the kings of Sardinia, were 
descended from a knight of Northman descent, who came 
from Saxony. His name was Humbert (or Umberto) of 
the White Hands. Exiled from Court by reason of a quar- 
rel with the Emperor, he built himself a castle among the 
hills of Savoy. When Conrad became Emperor of Ger- 
many, he gave this land in 1048 to Count Humbert. The 
Emperor Sigismund in 1417 made Savoy into a duchy. 
The Dukes of Savoy intermarried with royal families, and 
held a high place among the sovereign princes of Europe, 
less on account of their political importance than their 
personal character. One, Emmanuel Philibert, married a 
daughter of Francis I. of France, and his son, Charles 
Emmanuel, espoused a daughter of Philip II. of Spain ; 
another, Victor Amadeus I., married a daughter of Henri 
IV. of France, while Victor Amadeus II., who in 1720 
first assumed the title of King of Sardinia, married Anna 
Maria of Orleans, granddaughter of King Charles I. of 
England and Henrietta Maria. 

Victor Amadeus, the second king of that name, but 
the third Victor Amadeus Duke of Savoy, ascended the 
throne in 1773 and had six sons. All grew to manhood, 
three were married, and succeeded each other on the 
Sardinian throne, but none had a male heir. Their names 
were Charles Emmanuel IV., who married Marie Adelaide 
Clotilde, sister of Louis XVI. and Madame Elisabeth ; 
Victor Emmanuel I. ; and Charles Felix. With Charles 
Felix the elder branch of the Savoy family died out in the 
male line. Charles Emmanuel abdicated in 1802 after some 
years of exile in Sardinia. Victor Emmanuel abdicated in 
182 1 ; Charles Felix succeeded him and died in 1830. 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 2$ 

The next heir to the throne was young Charles Albert of 
Savoy-Carignan, a very distant cousin. 

Savoy had been conquered by the French arms in 1792, 
and annexed to France as two departments; but by the 
treaties of 18 14 it was given back to Piedmont by the 
allies ; and to Piedmont was also annexed the former 
republic of Genoa, in spite of promises made to it by 
Lord William Bentinck, who held it for the English. Lord 
Castlereagh refused to ratify those promises and it was 
incorporated into a country for which it had for centuries 
entertained an especial aversion. 

On January 11, 182 1, a tumult took place at Novara, the 
work of some young students, who soon excited the popula- 
tion. The rising was suppressed the next day by soldiers 
from Turin. But the revolutionary spirit was by no means 
subdued. A month later, at the dictate of Austria, several 
noblemen, leaders of the Liberal cause, were arrested in 
Piedmont, and thrown into prison. By March the revolu- 
tionary leaders proclaimed a Constitution, and unfurled 
the red, white, and green flag, the tricolor of United Italy. 
Turin then fell into the hands of the revolutionists. King 
Victor Emmanuel, who was absent from his capital, hastened 
back to it, determined at first to oppose the revolution ; 
but finding that his army was of the same mind as those 
who were shouting for a Constitution, he decided to abdi- 
cate. The demand was universal for the Spanish Constitu- 
tion. "Our hearts," said the insurgents, "are faithful to 
the king, but we must extricate him from his fatal counsel- 
lors ; war with Austria, and the Constitution of Spain, — 
that is what the situation of the country and the people 
require." These, King Victor Emmanuel was unwilling to 
grant ; he abdicated in favor of his only remaining 
brother, Charles Felix, who was then in Modena, and 
appointed his far-away cousin, Prince Charles Albert of 
Savoy-Carignan, who was next heir to the throne, Regent 
until Charles Felix could arrive. Then, with his family, he 
took the road to Nice, and Charles Albert, after some 
hesitation, proclaimed the desired Constitution. 



26 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
The proclamation he issued said — 

" In this most difficult moment it is not possible merely to 
consider what it is usually within the faculty of a regent to per- 
form. Our respect and submission to his Majesty Charles 
Felix, upon whom the throne has devolved, would have coun- 
selled us to abstain from making any change in the fundamental 
laws of the kingdom, and would have led us to wait, so that we 
might know the intentions of the new king. But the imperious 
necessity of the circumstances being clearly manifest, and it 
especially behoving us to hand over to His Majesty his people 
in safety and happiness, ... we have determined that the Con- 
stitution of Spain shall be promulgated." 

The Regent then hastened to inform Charles Felix of 
what had been done, to which the King replied by protest- 
ing against any changes in the form of government intro- 
duced since his brother's abdication; he denounced the 
Constitution, and gave his subjects warning that his august 
allies would support him in his opposition to it. He ap- 
pointed a new ministry, especially charged to punish all those 
who had striven to overthrow absolutism in Piedmont. He 
also summoned Charles Albert to repair at once to Novara 
and there make submission to him, together with his army. 

Meantime, the Austrians, on the invitation of Charles 
Felix, marched into Piedmont ; and Genoa, seeing resistance 
was hopeless, submitted. The King remained eight months 
in Modena before he visited his dominions, and Charles 
Albert, deeply in disgrace, was ordered to repair at once to 
Florence, and live there under the eye of his brother-in-law, 
Leopold of Tuscany, an Austrian archduke wholly out of 
sympathy with his revolutionary leanings. Nor was this 
enough. He was required to appease the allies, by serving 
in the French army which the Holy Alliance was about to 
despatch into Spain to put down Riego and the new 
Constitution. 

The Congress of Verona took place in 1822. Strange to 
say, the inhabitants of that place made a great parade of their 
attachment to " their adored sovereign, the Emperor Fran- 
cis of Austria," and welcomed their august visitors with en- 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 2J 

thusiasm. To be sure, there were four hundred police in 
the city to keep order, and ten thousand troops encamped 
around it. The sovereigns present were the Emperor Alex- 
ander, the Emperor Francis and his Empress, King Ferdi- 
nand of Naples, King Charles Felix of Sardinia, the Duchess 
of Lucca, the Archduke Ranieri, Viceroy of Lombardy, and 
the ex-Empress Maria Louisa. All sorts of fetes and enter- 
tainments relieved their labors. 

Lord Broughton says that, of all the sovereigns present, the 
Emperor Alexander took the most pains to ingratiate him- 
self with the Veronese, by rambling about in pretended in- 
cognito, shaking hands with the ladies he happened to en- 
counter in the streets, and giving sequins to the boys at 
play. He one day amused himself by carrying up coffee to 
his brother of Austria, and it was some time before Francis 
discovered that he was waited on by an emperor. 

The Congress of Verona did not materially alter the 
political map of Europe as laid down by the Treaty of Paris 
signed May 30, 18 14. 

The arrangement of 1814 reinstated Pope Pius VII. in 
Rome, Victor Emmanuel I. in Sardinia, and Ferdinand III., 
Archduke of Austria, in Tuscany; while Parma and 
Piacenza were given to the Emperor's dethroned daughter, 
the ex-Empress Maria Louisa. Modena was restored to the 
Austrian Archduke Francis; Murat in 18 14 had been 
allowed to return to Naples ; but in 1822 the perjured Fer- 
dinand was working his will both in Naples and Sicily, while 
Austria was supreme in Lombardy and Venetia. The inde- 
pendence of the tiny republics of San Marino and Monaco 
was graciously recognized, .while, at Verona, Genoa was 
confirmed to Sardinia, as was likewise that part of Savoy 
which in 1814 had been reserved to France. 

Thus, all Italy, unless we except Piedmont, whose king 
was not absolutely deprived of all right to govern for him- 
self, was Austrian, or governed by members of the imperial 
house of Austria, for even the Pope was held to be, in fact 
if not in theory, an Austrian vassal. There was thus, indeed, 
in one sense a united Italy, — an Italy united in misery, 



28 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

and, we may also add, in hatred to the rule of the Austrians. 
The seeds were being sown during this period which were 
to bear fruit in after years. 

In 1 83 1 there was an outbreak in Italy of revolutionary 
fervor. It was, in truth, for all Europe an important year. 
In it Charles Albert succeeded Charles Felix on the throne 
of Sardinia; Ferdinand II. (King Bomba) on the death of 
his father, Francis 1., at the close of 1S30 had become ruler 
of the Two Sicilies ; Gregory XVI. became Pope. These 
were all personages who were to play important parts in Italy 
during the next twenty years. But even more important 
than the entrance on the scene of these potentates, was that 
of Giuseppe Mazzini. 

He was born in Genoa on the day that the armies of 
Napoleon took possession of that city. His father was a 
physician. His mother was a woman whose life was de- 
voted to companionship with her son. In 1831 he was but 
three-and-twenty, but he had already suffered seven months' 
imprisonment, in the fortress of Savona, for the suspicious 
tendencies of his political opinions. He was a Carbonaro, 
but was not in sympathy with the methods of the society ; he 
abhorred its secrecies, its mysteries, and its ordeals of ini- 
tiation. During his imprisonment at Savona he thought out 
a plan for a far simpler, and, as he hoped, a far more effect- 
ive, organization, — that afterwards known as Young Italy. 
He had obtained his liberty before the death of Charles 
Felix, and was at Marseilles at the time of the accession of 
Charles Albert, to whom he addressed a letter, appealing 
to him to come forward and to put himself at the head of 
a national movement for the unity of Italy. Italian unity 
above and before all things was the object of Young Italy, — 
the form of government in a united Italy might afterwards 
settle itself. The oath taken by those who entered the 
society was, as we have seen, of the simplest kind. They 
were bound, by promise to God and by their honor, to do 
all in their power to promote the welfare and the unity of 
Italy, even should it be by the sacrifice of their lives. 

Living at Marseilles, and there publishing a paper called 




EMPRESS MARIA LOUISA. 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 29 

"Young Italy," Mazzini made use of the facilities afforded him 
by the commercial relations of the place to aid his propa- 
ganda. One of his agents, serving on board an Italian mer- 
chantman, trading to Taganrog, on the sea of Azof, there met 
a young Italian whom he easily interested in the new society. 
It was Giuseppe Garibaldi. Cavour at the same date was 
in disgrace, having been removed from his work as an en- 
gineer officer in Genoa, on account of his political opinions. 

Mazzini's personal convictions were in favor of a republican 
form of government. He believed that the will of the na- 
tion should rule, expressed through its elected delegates, 
— a noble thing not easily carried out when parties are gov- 
erned by self-interest, and when disgust at the course of 
politicians puts the best men of the nation out of sympathy 
with affairs of state. The theory must be set to work before 
men can appreciate its difficulties. 

Mazzini first became known to the public as the author 
of a letter addressed to Charles Albert imploring him to 
place himself at the head of the movement to bring about 
Italian unity. Mazzini was too good a patriot to insist on 
his own views. His wish was to see Italy united, free, and 
happy, whether under a constitutional monarch, or a repub- 
lican form of government, though he believed always in his 
heart that the latter would be best. 

Mazzini was a sincerely religious man. To him Catholi- 
cism was the national religion in a chrysalis state, and he 
could hardly be called a Catholic ; but true religion, — faith 
in God and devotion to duty, because duty was obedience 
to God's will, — was the moving principle of his life in his 
early years. Carlyle, who, however he might worship de- 
ceased heroes, was seldom willing to admit into his Walhalla 
living men, said of Mazzini : — 

" I have had the honor to know him for a series of years, and, 
whatever I may think of his practical insight and skill in worldly 
affairs, I can with great freedom testify that, if I have ever seen 
such, he is a man of genius and virtue, one of those rare men, 
numerable unfortunately as units in the world, who are worthy 
to be called martyr souls ; who, in silence, piously in their daily 
life understand and practise what is meant by that." 



30 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

And Mazzini, in a letter written about the same time, says 
of Carlyle : 

" I have met upon my path — lonely enough, but I hope by 
choice — a Scotchman of mind and things, the first person here, 
up till now, with whom I sympathize and who sympathizes with 
me. We differ in nearly all our opinions, but his are so sincere 
and so disinterested that I respect them. He is good, good, 
good." 

Mazzini's letter to Charles Albert, who did not wish to 
declare himself till wind and tide served, and who, indeed, 
under threat of an Austrian occupation of his kingdom, had 
just signed a document imposed on him by Prince Metter- 
nich, which bound him to make during his reign no radical 
or constitutional changes in the government of his kingdom, 
— this letter, written by an obscure exiled young student, 
did not move the King. He responded by an order for 
his arrest, should he again set foot in Piedmont. 

Mazzini remained an exile in England, his u second 
country " he called it, and devoted himself to the good of 
the Italian working class immigrants in London. 

He took a keen interest in the rescue and moral 
improvement of the children employed by organ-grinders. 
He opened a school for them in Hatton Garden, 1 which he 
mainly supported himself, in spite of his poverty, from 1841 
to 1848. 

In 1 83 1 Italian hearts were stirred by the belief that the 
government of Louis Philippe had adopted what was called 
the principle of non-intervention. This meant not only 
that France would not take part in putting down any 

1 It was in 1846 that I was taken by Mr. and Mrs. George Put- 
nam, in company with Margaret Fuller, then on her way to Italy, to 
a meeting held at this schoolhouse in Hatton Garden. Mazzini 
spoke, and we had an Italian improvisatore, and afterwards were 
taken into another room, where little Italian organ boys and white- 
mice boys, were swallowing yards upon yards of maccaroni. How 
little I realized the importance of the personages in whose company 
I found myself that evening ! — though even then I was an enthusiast 
for Margaret Fuller's "Papers on Literature and Art." — E. W. L. 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 31 

revolutionary rising in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, or 
elsewhere, but that she would prevent the interference of 
any other foreign government in any revolutionary move- 
ment. This was surely asking a great deal of France, which 
had her own affairs to settle, and a new dynasty to establish 
on her throne. Poland and Italy, Portugal, Spain, and 
Belgium, however, put their own interpretation on the 
policy of non-intervention, as enunciated by the first minis- 
try of Louis Philippe j a portion of the Papal States broke 
at once into revolution ; and, marvellous to say, the revolu- 
tionists looked to that unscrupulous intriguer and cruel 
despot, Francis of Modena, as the man to lead them, and in 
return he expected to be proclaimed King of Northern Italy. 

Wise heads saw that the scheme was wholly impracti- 
cable, — not only impracticable, but subversive of better 
hopes ; but patriotic enthusiasm is not to be checked by 
the cold considerations of wisdom. Count Joseph Orsi, in his 
interesting book of personal reminiscences, gives us an 
account of how Napoleon Louis and Louis Napoleon, sons 
of Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense, were carried away 
by the horrent, to the despair of their mother and father, 
who had been long separated, but were brought together at 
Florence by common concern for their two sons. 

Napoleon Louis was remarkably handsome. Somewhat 
taller than a man of middle height, his figure and his gait 
were perfection. 

"He had," says Orsi, "an expression of great intelligence 
and sweetness; and a keen look in his eyes, mingled with 
simplicity and kindliness, had made him the idol of society in 
Florence, and the dearly-loved son of his father, then living 
under the title of the Count de St. Leu. His education had 
been carefully attended to, and his stock of knowledge and 
his proficiency in foreign languages, and especially sciences, 
had brought the most eminent men in Florence to court 
his acquaintance and friendship. In horsemanship he was 
perfection." 

Such is his portrait, painted by an admirer, early in the 
winter of 183 1. He had recently married his cousin Char- 



32 ITALY IN THE NIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

lotte, daughter of his uncle Joseph Bonaparte, and had 
every prospect of a happy life. But he and his brother, 
seized with the revolutionary enthusiasm prevalent in Italy, 
had taken the oaths as Carbonari, — not of that milder 
type that called itself Young Italy, or the Society of United 
Italy, but oaths of the advanced and secret kind of Car- 
bonarism that resembles Nihilism, — that binds its mem- 
bers by strange oaths, demands secrecy and obedience, 
and holds killing to be no murder when inflicted on a 
recreant who has broken his vows. 

The Prince, with all his attractive qualities, was wilful and 
determined, very hard to dissuade from any course on 
which he had decided. With the cause of regenerated 
Italy he was determined to stand or fall. 

He declared to Orsi, whom he admitted into a sort of 
half- confidence, his full belief that the principle of non- 
intervention would be carried out by the new French gov- 
ernment. It would check, he believed, the action of the 
Austrian government, and give free scope to the Italians 
to settle their own affairs. " One of the reigning princes of 
Italy," he said to Orsi, "whose name I am not at liberty to 
tell you, will shortly take the initiative in our affairs. We 
propose to form a Confederation of such States as will give 
in their adherence to our proposal, and it is expected that 
all will consent to form part of the project of establishing 
an independent state ruled by a constitution framed by and 
common to all. Should the scheme be successful, Rome 
will be the capital of the Italian Confederation, discharging 
its duties under the supreme presidence of the Pope." 

The Prince believed in Louis Philippe's willingness to 
endanger his own crown to assist the cause of revolution in 
Italy. But Orsi, who had just returned from Paris, could 
not share these views. He was bidden, however, to a 
meeting to be held secretly in the house of Napoleon Louis, 
and was given leave to speak his mind to deputies who 
would come to Florence from other cities to be present. 

The very day of the meeting it was rumored that the 
Austrians had taken the alarm, and were sending reinforce- 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 33 

ments to the fortress of Ferrara in Romagna, the Pope 
having given Austria the right to garrison it. 

The brother of Ciro Menotti spoke first at the meeting, 
regretting the divergence in Liberal views, but believing that 
all patriots were in favor of insurrection at the proper time, 
— and that time had arrived, in his opinion. 

Dictatorship, he said, was to be exercised by the Duke 
of Modena, until independence should be attained. The 
Duke's adviser and confidant was his own brother, Ciro 
Menotti. The Duke had for some time past been negotia- 
ting secretly with other Italian princes. On March 4 the 
insurrection was to break out in Modena, Parma, and Pia- 
cenza, which were to send volunteers to join the forces 
already manoeuvring in Romagna. Austria would be shut 
up in her fortresses, forbidden by France to move. 

" But," cried Count Orsi, " can you have placed your trust in 
the Duke of Modena ? There is not a man or child, friend or 
foe — not a country, however far away from Italy, that has not 
heard of his standing as the most conspicuous champion of 
absolutism, cruelty, and lust for gold ? His wealth is as great 
as his greediness for riches. His blind subserviency to the will 
of Austria and to the bigotry of Rome is notorious ; and how 
your brother, Ciro Menotti, can have pinned his faith for the 
liberation of Italy to the Duke of Modena, and have made him 
our leader in the Italian movement, I am at a loss to understand. 
Tell him that the Duke is a master in treachery, — a man not to 
be relied on, that he would sacrifice his best friend to save his 
throne. Tell Ciro he is completely mistaken in his assumption 
that Austria will stand quietly a looker-on at what is taking 
place in Italy; and let him bear well in mind the responsi- 
bility and grief that will overwhelm his chivalrous nature at 
the sacrifice of so many lives, should the insurrection prove 
a failure." 

Subsequently, on Count Orsi's remonstrating privately with 
the Prince, the latter pleaded his "engagements." "En- 
gagements ! " exclaimed Orsi, "and with whom?" "With 
the secret society of the Carbonari, of which both I and my 
brother are members." 

That night poor Napoleon Louis and his brother, the 

3 



34 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

future Napoleon III., left Florence secretly, to join the 
insurgents who were in arms in Romagna. 

Bologna had been surrendered to the patriots without 
resistance. The soldiers of the Pontifical army in garrison 
in the place even joined in effecting the change. The 
movement took possession without violence or bloodshed, 
of Romagna, Umbria, and the Marches. The citadel at 
Ancona surrendered at the first summons, its garrison dis- 
banded, and the soldiers returned to their own homes. 
The Bishop of Rimini bore public testimony to the good 
order maintained in his revolted diocese. 

But Austria soon put an end to all hopes founded on the 
possibility of her inaction. She sent troops at once into 
the revolted Papal States. Bologna and Ancona were at 
once reoccupied by Austrians, and the volunteer patriots 
soon learned that they were no match for disciplined 
soldiers of a regular army. 

On hearing that the Austrians had entered Romagna, an 
evident proof that either Louis Philippe had given up the 
principle of non-intervention, or that the Austrian govern- 
ment had determined to march troops against the insurgents 
in spite of it, the Duke of Modena, perceiving the danger 
of his position, hastened to inform Menotti that, the inter- 
vention of the Austrians having altered the state of affairs, 
he declined to be implicated in the conspiracy. Ciro 
Menotti and his confederates, undaunted by the defection 
of the Duke, and acting on the assumption that they had 
to deal with a traitor, rose in arms against him, and took 
possession of several parts of his capital. The Duke 
brought his soldiers to put down the insurgents, who, being 
dislodged from the places that they occupied, took refuge 
in a house which they barricaded. The Duke ordered his 
artillery to storm the house, and to spare no one. The 
fight was long and bloody. The house, being built on 
pillars, became shaky. Some of the men in it jumped out 
of the windows, and were shot dead in the street. Ciro 
Menotti fell, dangerously wounded, and in that state was 
carried to the ducal palace ; there he was secured in a car- 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 35 

riage that was to take the Duke to Mantua that he might 
be under the protection of Austrian cannon and bayonets. 

A few weeks after, when the insurrection had been com- 
pletely quelled, the Duke brought Menotti back with him 
to Modena, and having caused a scaffold to be erected in 
front of Menotti's own house, had him executed upon it 
without trial. 

The breaking up of the little army in Romagna had been 
promptly effected. The patriots were half armed, and had 
no experienced leader. Some escaped the fate of the less 
fortunate of their brothers in arms, who tried in vain to 
save their lives by taking to such small boats as they found 
upon the seashore. They were soon captured by Austrian 
cruisers, serving in the Adriatic, one of which was com- 
manded by a naval officer named Bandiera. 

The fate of those who were made prisoners is too dread- 
ful to be dwelt upon. The Court of Rome vied with the 
Austrians for the privilege of torturing them, and executing 
them. Among the prisoners were many Roman subjects 
whom Austria refused to give up, asserting her right to them, 
having fought to save the Papal dominions from destruc- 
tion. Between the two, the difference was rather in favor 
of Austria, as regarded the treatment to be expected by the 
unfortunate victims who were doomed to imprisonment. 
Those who were not shot at once underwent a sham trial, 
and were plunged, loaded with irons, into damp, dark 
prisons, — until a few saw light and liberty in the years 
1847-48. 

Both Napoleon Louis and Louis Napoleon had joined 
the insurgents. They fought bravely, and showed in sev- 
eral instances much military skill, but their presence was 
not acceptable to the leaders of the revolt, who still hoped 
for help and favor from Louis Philippe. Young Bonapartes 
in their ranks might tell against them. The Princes were 
required to repair to Forli, where they were kept in a 
species of captivity. There both became extremely ill. 
Their disorder was pronounced to be measles, a disease at 
that time prevalent in Northern Italy. But doubts have 



36 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

been thrown upon their case. They were Carbonari — 
they may have been considered recreant, or it may have 
been policy under the circumstances to get them out of the 
way. Napoleon the elder died. His brother, just risen 
from his sick bed, met their mother, Queen Hortense, a few 
miles out of Forli with the heartbreaking news. This effort 
and the emotion it occasioned were too much for him. 
He became desperately ill, and Queen Hortense was roused 
from her grief at the loss of one son by the necessity of doing 
all in a mother's power to save the life of the other. 

She succeeded in getting him into Ancona, to a country 
house belonging to a member of the Bonaparte family. 
There she hid him and a friend of his, one of the pro- 
scribed, in a secret inner chamber, and nursed Louis 
through his illness, giving out, and even writing to his 
father (a precaution in case her letter should be opened), 
that she had got him off in safety to Corfu. She had pro- 
vided herself with an English passport which carried them 
safely to Genoa, the proscribed friend and a faithful ser- 
vant taking the part of the Englishwoman's two sons, while 
Louis, clad in livery, sat on the coach-box and directed the 
postilions. 

Nearly one thousand persons in the little Duchy of 
Modena went into exile to escape the vengeance of the 
Duke, and more than five hundred were thrown into prison. 
The hanging of Menotti, with all its aggravations, united to 
other measures of the most cruel kind, made Francis of 
Modena so generally hated that he lived in constant fear 
and suspicion of those around him. Spies and informers 
flourished under him, the most innocent were not safe from 
denunciation. Even a man who had once saved the Duke's 
life, and was perfectly loyal to his person, was tried by 
court-martial and shot under a false accusation, — the Duke 
saving to his wife, the mother of eight children, while the 
ink was not dry with which he had signed the death- 
warrant, " I know the innocence of your husband, and even 
if he were guilty, I know well that gratitude would prevent 
my punishing him." 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 37 

From 1831 to 1846, — that is, for fifteen years, — there 
was comparative tranquillity in the Italian peninsula, — the 
tranquillity that ensues when a victim stunned and bleeding 
lies helpless at the foot of his oppressor. Twice, however, 
during those fifteen years, Savoy was invaded by small 
bodies of exiled Italians, who thought to stir up revolu- 
tionary fervor, but these expeditions were mere raids, and 
in 1844 there was the brief sad episode of the rash attempt 
of the brothers Bandiera. 

Restless and unhappy Italian exiles, who belonged to 
the order of Young Italy, planned hopeless revolutionary 
attempts. These did not succeed, nor was it likely that 
they should have been successful. " Devised by exiles at a 
distance from their country," says the Countess Cesaresco," 
" they lacked the first elements of success. The earliest of 
these attempts aimed at an invasion of Savoy ; it was hoped 
that the Sardinian army and people would join the little 
band of exiles in a movement for the liberation of 
Lombardy." 

The plans of the promoters of this ill-advised effort for 
Italian liberation were discovered before they were put in 
execution, and severe sentences of death and imprisonment 
were passed on those concerned in the conspiracy, even by 
Charles Albert, who felt himself obliged to secure the tran- 
quillity of his kingdom by a certain submission to Austria, 
which had an army ready to occupy Piedmont if he gave 
her cause to do so. The brother of Ruffini (the author of 
" Doctor Antonio "), the bosom friend of Mazzini, com- 
mitted suicide in prison, fearing he might inadvertently 
reveal in his examination the names of his associates. 

Mazzini, who later deprecated rash attempts at insurrec- 
tion, as leading only to the loss of precious lives that in due 
season might prove useful to their country, approved the 
plan of invading Savoy and Piedmont, and it was carried 
into effect in 1834. A Savoyard who had served in the 
Polish Revolution of 1831, Ramorino by name, had com- 
mand of the expedition. He was accounted a good soldier, 
but was an inveterate gambler. He had crossed the 



38 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

frontier into Savoy with his handful of exiles, when he 
learned that a Polish reinforcement which he had expected 

to join him had been stopped on its way near the Lake of 
Geneva. He then considered the expedition hopeless, and 
effected his retreat, abandoning his followers, and advising 
their disbandment. 

The expedition of the brothers Bandiera took place in 
the summer of 1844. It was disapproved and discouraged 
by Mazzini. Its object was to rouse Southern Italy. 

The young men had been naval officers in the Austrian 
service, in which their father was an admiral. In 1831 he 
had arrested many of the Italian fugitives who in open boats 
were trying to escape to Corfu. The two young men had 
deserted their flag, but the Archduke Ranieri, then 
Viceroy of Lombardy and Venetia, made ever}- attempt to 
win them back. Neither his promises of indulgence nor 
their mother's tears could move them. Their principal 
associates were Domenico Moro, who had been a comrade 
of theirs in a mixed force of Englishmen and Austrians in 
the Lebanon, after a massacre at Damascus, and the revolt 
of the Druses ; Ricciotti, a young Roman of much promise ; 
and Anacarsi Xardi, son of the chief minister of the Duke 
of Modena. The little baud, which hoped to revolutionize 
the Italian Peninsula and drive the Austrians back over the 
Alps, amounted to twenty men. One of these twenty was, 
however, a traitor. They crossed the Adriatic from Corfu 
to Calabria, but the band of insurgents who they had been 
assured would meet them were nowhere to be found. 
Information had been furnished to the government of 
Naples by the traitor, a Corsican officer. They wandered 
for a few days in the mountains, then were surrounded and 
captured. Attilio and Emilio Bandiera were shot, together 
with Moro, Ricciotti, and Xardi. Their last words, heard 
above the rattle of the musketry, were Evviva Italia ! 
They had been born on her soil, — and, rash as their 
enterprise had been, they died for her. 

The traitor had a mock trial to save appearances, and 
was condemned to nominal imprisonment. "When he 



ITALY EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 39 

came out of prison he wrote to a Greek girl at Corfu, to 
whom he was engaged, to join him in Naples, that they 
might be married. The girl had been deeply in love with 
him, and had already given him part of her dowry, but she 
answered : ' A traitor cannot wed a Greek maiden. I bear 
with me the blessing of my parents ; upon you rests the 
curse of God.' " 

Of this ill-fated attempt of the brothers Bandiera Mr. 
Probyn says, in his " History of Italy": — 

" Such was the spirit engendered by the wrongs of Italy. It 
was a spirit which led, indeed, to hopeless enterprises, and even 
to criminal acts, but it kept alive the national sentiment, it pro- 
duced the great uprising of 1848, it survived the triumphs of 
the reactionary governments in 1849, it carried Italy through 
the conflicts, dangers, defeats, hopes, and successes, which, 
commencing with the Franco-Italian war of 1859, at length 
secured to Italy her unity and independence under the 
constitutional rule of the royal house of Savoy." 



CHAPTER II. 

PIO NONO. 

f~\N the last day of May, 1846, Pope Gregory XVI. died. 
^-^ He had been a cruel temporal ruler, an indifferent 
Pope, and his enemies said that he was far from a good 
man. He was a very different Pope from the two who 
have succeeded him. 

His death-bed was piteous. It is an old custom that 
when a Pope dies his apartments may be pillaged by his 
servants, who on this occasion were beforehand in their 
work, and the poor dying man was left utterly alone in his 
sick room, till a soldier on guard was persuaded to stay by 
him in his last moments, for charity's sake. 

His death was welcomed by half the population of Rome, 
for the death of a Pope is generally succeeded by the 
release of political prisoners. 

The prisons were crowded with men belonging to the 
best families in the Eternal City, and when it was reported 
that the Pope was very ill, mothers, wives, and sisters were 
hoping eagerly that he might not recover. 

The death of Pope Gregory was officially announced by 
the usual ceremonies. The Cardinal Camerlengo, tapping 
the corpse three times upon the forehead with a golden 
hammer, asked His Holiness a question, and, receiving no 
answer, pronounced the Pontiff dead. Then the Pope's 
ring of the Fisherman was broken, and it only remained for 
the corpse to be embalmed, and lie in state. 

The Conclave of Cardinals (the word conclave meaning 
literally under lock and key) were shut up in the Quirina), 
each in his separate cell. They are always thus secluded 




POPE PIO NONO. 



PIO NO NO. 41 

till the election of a new Pope has been made. Each day 
they take their places upon thrones in the Chapel, and after 
mass each cardinal gives in his scroll. In an inner fold he 
writes his own name, on the outer fold the name of the 
candidate he votes for. Two cardinals, appointed for the 
purpose, take the papers and read only the candidate's 
name. If no candidate has a two-thirds vote the scrolls 
are burnt up in a certain stove, and it is by smoke coming 
out of the chimney of that stove that Rome knows that a 
fresh vote has been taken, and that there is no election. 

There were fifty-seven cardinals present in this Con- 
clave ; amongst them were Cardinal Mezzofanti, who knew 
fifty- six languages or dialects, and Cardinal Mai, whose 
fame for learning was world-wide, but in general the mem- 
bers of the Conclave (a few of whom, though Cardinals, 
were not in priests' orders) were indifferent men. 

There was a by-law existing in 1846 that there could be 
only ten foreigners among the cardinals, — that out of the 
seventy, sixty must be Italians. At this time there were 
actually but five foreign cardinals, and none of these were 
present in the Conclave. 

The two prominent parties were the party of Cardinal 
Lambruschini, who expected to receive the votes of the 
younger cardinals ; while the older cardinals, who opposed 
Lambruschini, were under the leadership of Cardinal 
Fieschi ; and a third party, attached to the Jesuits, was 
opposed to the election of any Pope who was a friar. 

Austria and France had each its candidate. The 
Conclave was expected to be a very long one. To the 
astonishment of Rome and of the cardinals themselves, it 
ended in two days. 

On the first ballot the cardinals forming the three differ- 
ent parties each voted for the candidate of their choice, and 
there was no election. The party of Cardinal Lambruschini 
was, however, the most powerful. Seeing this, his opponent, 
Cardinal Fieschi, became alarmed. Previous to the meet- 
ing of the Conclave he had directed his supporters, in such 
a case, to vote for some cardinal who had no prospect of 



42 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

being elected, in order to gain time. The leaders of the 
Jesuit party had done the same thing, and both parties, as 
they had had no opportunity of knowing the other's vote, 
fixed on the same man to serve their purpose. 

The ballots were read. The Fieschi and the Jesuit 
cardinals united, outnumbered the cardinals who supported 
Lambruschini sufficiently to give a two-thirds vote to 
Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti, who no one had ever expected 
would be chosen. He was accordingly elected. 

Shortly after, he was presented as the new Pope to the 
people, and selected as his title Pio Xono, or Pius IX. 

Pio Xono's family had been always Liberals : a few gen- 
erations back one of them had married a converted Jewess. 
The new Pope, Giovanni Maria Mastai, was the third son of 
his house. His elder brothers were in the Garda Xobile. He 
himself had been educated for a lawyer, but he did not 
" take to " learning, and, indeed, all his life was an indiffer- 
ent Latin scholar. At Rome he fell in love with Clara 
Colonna, a very beautiful young lady, connected indirectly 
with the great Roman family of Colonna. She declined 
the addresses of Giovanni Mastai, though he was a hand- 
some, elegant young man, and married a dragoon officer. 
The disappointment was severe. Mastai plunged for a time 
into dissipation, then renounced the study of the law, and 
his family got him an appointment in the Garda Xobile. 
But he was rejected as physically ineligible, because he had 
had epileptic fits. 

This second disappointment was too much for him. He 
saw in it a sign from heaven, calling him to repentance. 
He changed his course of life, and resolved to enter the 
Church. His tastes were not for ecclesiastical learning, but 
for preaching the Gospel. He went out to Chili as a 
missionary. Afterwards, returning to Rome, he made the 
care of orphans his especial charge. He was made Bishop 
of Imola. and there was accused of betraying some of the 
unhappy patriots after one of their numerous and foolhardy 
abortive risings. He was certainly placed on a Commission 
to try them. He always said that he accepted the position 



PIO nono. 43 

with a view to their being treated with leniency. His 
enemies, however, accused him of " priestly treachery." 

Among moderates he enjoyed the reputation of possess- 
ing liberal and moderate opinions, and a correct judgment, 
nor had he any toleration for the frightful temporal mis- 
government of the Papal States, or the reactionary policy of 
Pope Gregory. He had read the books that were being 
passed from hand to hand among Italian Liberals, and his 
heart had been stirred by propositions for the federation of 
Italy under the headship of a Liberal Pope. When he went 
up to the Conclave he had carried with him some of the 
books containing patriotic, anti- Austrian, and Liberal opin- 
ions, intending to present them to whoever should be chosen 
Pope. A story is told that a white pigeon accompanied his 
carriage on his journey, and would not be driven away. 

A month after his election the political amnesty appeared, 
and the political prisoners throughout the Roman States 
were released. The amnesty was hailed with rapture by 
the people. The Pope became their idol. 

Here is part of a letter I received in those days from 
Mrs. Crawford, wife of the highly distinguished American 
sculptor, and mother of Marion Crawford, a novelist of 
whom America is justly proud. 

My letter was dated at Frascati, July 26, 1846. After 
home news of herself and of her children, and telling me 
how she had left Rome for the summer season, she 
went on : — 

" But indeed I must tell you how old Rome has waked up 
from a long, long sleep since the new Pope has come into 
power. The people have been in a state of excitement border- 
ing on insanity, for about ten days since the Pope signed an 
edict by which fourteen thousand political prisoners in the 
Pontifical States were set at liberty." 

Let me here interrupt Mrs. Crawford's letter to remark 
that fourteen thousand political prisoners in the Pontifical 
States represented one out of every twenty-six per- 
sons, including women and children. Mrs. Crawford 
continues : — 



44 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

M There were only excepted priests, military men. or those 
who had been in the employ of the government. — all were 
freed at a moment's notice. When the edict was issued, late in 
the afternoon, a large number of people had assembled to wit- 
ness a kind of ball-playing. The moment the young men heard 
of it they rushed from the place, formed themselves into a body, 
and marched directly to the Ouirinal Palace, where they de- 
manded of the Swiss Guard admittance to the presence of their 
Sovereign. This, of course, was refused. However, they 
insisted that the Swiss Guard should bear their message to the 
Pope. — that they had come to thank him for his generosity in 
liberating their countrymen. The Guard obeyed, and soon 
returned with orders to admit them into the inner courtyard, 
where, after a moment the Pope appeared on a balcony. They 
all knelt while he blessed them, and then shouted their 
acclamations of joy. 

u The same evening there was to be the canonization of a 
new Saint, attended with much beautiful music and imposing 
ceremonies, and most of the leading people of Rome were to be 
there to witness the ceremony. The new Saint's picture had 
been painted in brilliant colors, and hung over the door of the 
Church : the music and the services had begun, when the news 
of this glorious edict was whispered about among the people. 
The new Saint was forgotten, and with one rush they all — 
women and men alike — ran towards the Ouirinal. seizing 
torches as they went and their numbers continually increasing. 
At the Piazza Colonna they met with another immense body of 
people, who, actuated by a similar impulse, had also seized 
torches, and were on their way to the palace, They all reached 
the great square in front of the Ouirinal about four o'clock at 
night. With one voice this sea of souls cried : Fuori .' Fuori .' 
nostra Sovrano ! 'Come forth ! come forth ! our Sovereign \ ) 
Viva .' Viva I Pio Xono. There was a pause. Then they saw 
lights moving in the very extremity of the palace : they moved 
on from window to window, until they paused before that open- 
ing on to the great balconv looking over the Piazza. Then the 
blinds were thrown open, and between two lines of torches Pio 
Xono stepped forth, and the enthusiasm of the people knew no 
bounds. The Pope blessed them — a thing unheard of before 
at that hour of the night — and, after a few moments, he retired, 
waving his arms to the multitude till he was lost to view. My 
husband says it was one of the most beautiful and exciting 
sights he ever witnessed. It seemed to him almost a revolution. 
But the poor Saint awaiting canonization had to remain un- 



PIO nono. 45 

canonized all night. The following day the people in their 
enthusiasm detached the horses from the Pope's carriage, and 
drew it themselves along the Corso, ladies flinging handfuls of 
flowers upon him from the windows as he passed below. He 
was obliged to publish a paper requesting the populace, at the 
same time that he thanked them for their testimonials of esteem 
and affection, to moderate their transports somewhat. In 
Bologna they trampled under foot a portrait of Gregory XVI. 
at the same time that they are almost worshipping his suc- 
cessor, and I — yes, I ! — have wept tears of joy for the 
thousands of happy hearts beating with new hope in conse- 
quence of the noble, generous conduct of this new Pope. Here 
he is surrounded with darkness, like a diamond glittering in 
some dim cave. He dares to be liberal-minded — to be gener- 
ous — to attempt to shake off some of the dust of ages, to tear 
down the rank ivy which has overgrown and defaced the fairest 
portions of creation. Will not some unseen spirit bless the seed 
he scatters in the ground he ploughs ? " 

In Paris, little Parian busts of Pio Nono were sold every- 
where, and it was my strong desire to possess one, greatly 
to the astonishment of my mother, who could not imagine 
what I wanted her to give me a Pope's bust for. 

The amnesty was made much more liberal in consequence 
of the popular demonstrations of loyalty and gratitude. 
The populace had taken it for granted that it was general, 
in spite of the exceptions made in the proclamation, and 
the Pope did not resist their interpretation. 

"Deep interest," writes a Roman who had a brother incar- 
cerated at Rimini, "was felt in the liberated prisoners. When 
taken from their cells and brought into the light, among the 
huge crowd of their friends and relations they looked astonished 
and bewildered, as if suspecting that their triumph was but a 
dream. Many of them were entirely disabled and worn out by 
ill-treatment, and some were brought out blindfolded, upon 
chairs, because the light might have been too much for them. 
I saw, among those in Rome, a venerable old gentleman carried 
by four of his sons, all full-grown men, formerly his fellow- 
prisoners. A ray of joy illuminated his dying face, and his 
heart was overwhelmed with happiness at the imposing sight of 
the Roman people once more free, and evidently determined to 
maintain their freedom. I did not see my brother when he 



46 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

came out from prison, for he was in Rimini. My mother had 
been waiting there for the amnesty since she heard of the elec- 
tion of the Pope. ' They brought him to my arms,' she wrote 
to me, ' because he could not walk at all, or change his sitting 
position. The dampness of his dungeon had deprived him of 
the use of his limbs, and want of air and light made him look 
as pale as death. His sparkling black eyes were shut, because 
he could not bear the light. I need not say what I felt at this 
sight. But he was in excellent spirits, and bade me be of good 
cheer as he would recover in a few days. So thinks our excellent 
friend Doctor Michialis.' " 

But though Pio Nono's popularity every day increased, 
he found himself beset by two opposing dangers. He was 
not a man of courage, not a man of political experience, 
and he had no adequate advisers. In Rome, surrounded 
by ecclesiastics, he stood almost alone. 

The party of Young Italy, at the head of which was 
Mazzini, was resolved not to be satisfied with anything less 
than a republic in Rome, and a federation of Italian 
republics, with Rome for their City of Washington, to form 
a United Italy. To this, and to the expulsion of the Aus- 
trians, its members had pledged themselves by oath, and 
the reforms offered by the Pope by no means promoted 
their views. 

On the other hand was the party of the Sanfedesti, — the 
Holy Faith party as it was called, — which opposed the 
reform of any abuses, however vile, as tending to encourage 
radicalism ; and this party, never opposed by Austria, was 
sometimes strengthened by her active support. To Prince 
Metternich, the Austrian Prime Minister, a Liberal Pope 
seemed as abnormal as a United Italy. However, Pio 
Nono, while opposed by the Sanfedesti in Rome, and by 
the ruling powers in Vienna, had good friends in France 
and England. Lord Palmerston lent him all possible sup- 
port, and enthusiasm in Paris went wild for him. 

The Prime Minister of Louis Philippe in 1846 and 1847 
was M. Guizot, and the French Ambassador at Rome was 
M. Guizot's son-in-law, Count Pellegrino Rossi. 

It seems strange to find M. Rossi French Ambassador 



no nono. 47 

at Rome, for he was an Italian who had been formerly a 
Professor at the University of Bologna. Pope Pius VII. 
exiled him in 1815 for his opinions, both political and 
religious, for he was (or became soon after) a Protestant. 
In Geneva he lived some years an exile, and there married 
one of M. Guizot's daughters. After 1830 he went to 
France, was naturalized as a Frenchman, and made Professor 
of Political Economy at the University of Paris. Louis 
Philippe subsequently made him a Peer of France. 

In 1845 there was a general uprising in Europe against 
the Jesuits, — a persecution which in many instances was 
irreligious and unjust. However, exasperation against the 
Order rose in France to such a height that Louis Philippe 
determined to ask Pope Gregory to assist him in removing 
them from France, rather than that they should be expelled. 
For this purpose Count Rossi was sent as Minister Extraor- 
dinary to the Papal Court. The Pope was exceedingly 
angry that a rebellious subject of the Church, and an avowed 
Protestant, should have been sent to him on such an errand, 
and he refused at first to see him. Nevertheless, two months 
had not elapsed before Rossi had been presented to the 
Pope and had successfully accomplished his mission ; and 
now, eighteen months later, he was in Rome strengthening 
the hands of a Liberal Pope, and preaching Liberal progress 
to the whole body of cardinals. 

Meantime, Pio Nono, who was, as I have said, a man of 
little courage, and who, like most epileptics, had very little 
command over his nerves, was buffeted about by the strong 
contrary winds that blew around him. He would not give 
the Romans an Elective Assembly, but he nominated a 
sort of State Council of " good men and true," which met 
in August, 1847. ^ proved, however, a total failure; it 
was not empowered to legislate, and was incompetent to 
advise. The failure of this body to do anything to any 
purpose lost the Pope some of his popularity. His minis- 
ters, too, were repeatedly changed. From time immemorial 
all Cabinet Ministers in the States of the Church had been 
ecclesiastics. Count Rossi urged the Pope to choose some 



48 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

of his Cabinet from laymen. This was done ; but events 
were now moviDg at railroad speed, and the truest friends 
of the Pope doubted his vigor. 

In February, 1S4S, Louis Philippe had been driven from 
his throne, and with him fell his Prime Minister, M. Guizot 
who became likewise an exile in England. Count Rossi 
upon this resigned his position as French Ambassador, and 
even as a Frenchman. He resolved to cast in his lot with 
his own countrymen. Revolution had broken out in Vienna. 
Prince Metternich had taken flight ; the Italians in Lom- 
bard}' and Venetia had rushed to arms. Charles Albert, 
King of Piedmont and Savoy, was preparing to join the 
Lombards and Venetians against their common enemy. 

All this produced a ferment in Rome which terrified Pio 
Xono. He found that the concessions he had made were 
considered not half enough by his subjects, and he began to 
lament their ingratitude, and to bewail his disappointment. 

Meantime, Rome and Young Italy throbbed with an 
enthusiastic wish to go to the assistance of their brethren 
fighting in Lombardy to drive away the Austrians. When 
the news of the outbreak in Vienna and the overthrow of 
Metternich reached Rome (March 21, 1848), a month after 
Louis Philippe had quitted France, a great tumult arose. 
Joy bells were rung : the Austrian flag was burned in public 
to the cry of Eirviva Italia .' Lawrence Oliphant, then 
scarcely more than a boy, has given us an amusing account 
of his participation in this work in his " Scenes in a Life of 
Adventure." He says : — 

•• Mutterings of the coming revolutionary* storm had been 
heard all over Europe, and it was just bursting over Italy as we 
descended into that country* at the close of 1S47. On the day 
when I entered Rome for the first time, I passed cannon pointed 
down the streets, and found the whole town seething with revo- 
lution I shall never forget joining a roaring mob one evening. 
bent I knew not upon what errand, and getting forced by the 
pressure of the crowd, and my own eagerness, into the front 
rank, just as we reached the Austrian Legation, and seeing the 
ladders passed to the front, and set against the wall, and the 
arms torn down : then I remember, rather from love of excite- 



PIO nono. 49 

ment than any strong political sympathy, taking hold, with hun- 
dreds of others, of the ropes which were attached to them, and 
dragging them in triumph to the Piazza del Popolo, where a 
certain Ciceruacchio, who was a great tribune of the people in 
those days, had a couple of carts laden with wood standing all 
ready ; and I remember their contents being tumultuously upset 
and heaped into a pile, and the Austrian arms being dragged 
on the top of them, and a lady, — I think the Princess Pamphili 
Doria, — who was passing in a carriage at the time, being com- 
pelled to descend, and being handed a flaming torch, with which 
she was requested to light the bonfire, which blazed up amid 
the frantic demonstrations of delight of a yelling crowd, who 
formed round it a huge ring, joining hands, dancing and caper- 
ing like demons; in all of which I took an active part, and 
going home utterly exhausted, with a feeling that somehow or 
other I had deserved well of my country. I remember, too, 
later, being roused from my sleep about one or two in the 
morning by the murmur of many voices, and looking out of my 
window and seeing a dense crowd moving beneath, and rush- 
ing into my clothes, and joining it, and being borne along I 
knew not whither, and finding myself at last one of a shrieking, 
howling mob at the doors of the Propaganda, against which 
heavy blows w T ere being struck, directed by improvised battering- 
rams ; and I remember the doors crashing in, and the mob 
crashing in after them, to find empty cells, and deserted corri- 
dors, for the monks had sought safety in flight. And I remem- 
ber standing on the steps of St. Peter's when Pope Pio Nono 
gave his blessing to the volunteers that were leaving, as they 
hoped, for Lombardy to fight the Austrians, and seeing the tears 
roll down his cheeks." 

Such reminiscences give us the seamy side of excited 
patriotism and the fervor of revolution. 

The Pope's ministry had begun to enlist volunteers. To 
the usual banner of the Pontifical troops (a yellow flag 
embroidered with the Keys) they joined the tricolor of 
Italy — red, white and green. All Rome, intoxicated with 
joy, rang with the clash of arms. " The streets," says an 
Englishman who was present, " echoed to the music of war- 
like songs. The Pope and the religious orders presented 
large gifts in money to the cause of Italy. More than 
twelve thousand volunteers marched to the frontier to join 

4 



50 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the fray ; among them were two of the Pope's nephews, and 
Pio Nono blessed them all as brave defenders of the 
Roman territory — and he blessed their cannon." 

But then came the reaction. The young men of Rome 
had quitted Rome. Great pressure was brought to bear on 
Pio Nono. The Liberal Ministry insisted on a declaration 
of war against Austria, and that the Papal troops must cross 
the Po. Austrian influence at the Papal Court, and almost 
every cardinal, declared that the Pope must go back rather 
than go forward in his revolutionary career. 

The history of what followed is not creditable to the 
courage or the statesmanship of Pio Nono. But indeed he 
dared not take a decided part either way. He put forth an 
allocution (as it was called) in such involved Latin that 
nobody could make out its real meaning. He fell into 
the strong hands of Cardinal Antonelli, who thenceforth 
governed him, and his career as a reforming Pope was 
over. 

Still tossed about, however, by contrary advisers, Pio 
Nono placed Count Rossi, who was one of his new Council, 
at the head of a new Ministry, but this appointment was 
received with much disapproval from the priestly party, nor 
was it looked upon with favor by those patriots whose eyes 
were turning to Charles Albert as the possible saviour of his 
country. Rossi's reforms, too, attacked old-established rights 
and vested interests, and thereby raised against him a large 
crop of enemies in all ranks of the community ; whilst the 
priestly party — the party of reaction — strove to inflame 
the populace against him by its cries : " What ! Rossi, who 
is a Protestant ! Rossi, a member of the infamous French 
Academy ! Rossi, some of whose writings are in the Index 
Expurgatorius ! " (the list of books prohibited in Rome). 

On November 15, 1848, there was to be in Rome the 
solemn opening of the second session of the Deliberative 
Council. 

" A little before one o'clock," says a Roman citizen, " I closed 
my office and went toward the building where the ceremony of 
the opening was to be performed. The huge square before it 



PIO NO NO. 51 

was covered with people. I saw a brilliant equipage crossing 
the square and entering the wide gates. It was the Prime 
Minister, Count Rossi. I was at the opposite end of the square, 
but, standing upon a piece of a broken column placed beside a 
gateway, I could see the wide entrance where the carriage 
stopped. Count Rossi got out of the carriage with two friends, 
and there were three servants in full-dress livery attending upon 
him. An unknown man among the crowd touched the left arm 
of Rossi, who turned his head with a quick movement ; at this 
another tall fierce-looking man plunged a knife into his neck, 
and then calmly withdrew among the crowd that was pressing 
forward to see what had happened." 

Who this man was, was not found out till six years after. 
Some said that the murderer was a brigand, hired by the 
Sanfedesti ; others that Rossi had been condemned as a 
traitor by one of the secret societies. There seems to have 
been no just ground, even on the part of the most advanced 
Liberals, for personal hatred against Rossi, but his murder 
proved in the end to have been their doing. 

The Countess Cesaresco, in her book on the " Liberation 
of Italy" says of this murder that it was " the most deeply to 
be regretted event in the course of the Italian revolution " ; 
and adds : — 

"As minister to the Pope, Count Rossi had made his influence 
immediately felt ; measures were taken to restore order in the 
finances, discipline in the army, public security in the streets, and 
method and activity in the government offices. The tax on 
ecclesiastical property was enforced; fomenters of anarchy, 
even though they wore the garb of patriots, and perhaps hon- 
estly believed themselves to be such, were vigorously dealt with. 
If any one could have given to the temporal power a new 
lease of life it would have been a man so gifted and so devoted 
as Pellegrino Rossi, but the entire forces both of reaction and 
subversion were against him." 

When news of the murder reached Pio Nono he shut 
himself up in the Quirinal, and gave orders to his Swiss 
Guard to admit no one to his presence but Cardinal Anto- 
nelli and the foreign ambassadors. Rossi's colleagues in 
the Ministry fled from Rome. There was neither a respon- 



52 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

sible Ministry nor any government in the city. The peace, 
however, was pretty well preserved during the night. 

Next morning the Deliberative Council desired to send a 
deputation to the Pope. He refused to see them. They 
insisted, and a large crowd supported them. The crowd 
was fired on by the soldiery. It grew furious. A large 
body of the National Guard marched on the Palace, and 
pointed a cannon at the door of the Pope's private apart- 
ments. The Pope yielded. He received the deputation, 
appointed a new Ministry, and peace was restored. But 
Pio Nono prepared for flight. 

Towards evening (November 25, 1848) he was visited 
by the Due de Harcourt, the French ambassador, who had 
arranged the details of his escape with a beautiful Roman 
lady, Theresa Giraud, married to Count Spaur, the Bavarian 
ambassador, who was also in secret an agent of the govern- 
ment at Vienna. The plan of the Due de Harcourt was to 
put the Pope on board a French steamer, then lying at 
Civita Vecchia, and to take him to France. The Austrian 
plan was, however, by no means that he should fall under the 
influence of revolutionary France, but rather that he should 
put himself under the protection of a power of extreme 
conservatism and far more in accordance with her policy. 

The ambassador of France sought an, audience with the 
Pope, while the doors of his private apartments were 
watched by sentinels of the Roman National Guard. The 
audience lasted several hours. On leaving, the Ambassador 
remarked, in the hearing of the sentinels, that His Holiness 
was very tired, and did not wish to be disturbed again that 
evening. The Due de Harcourt during his audience had 
used every argument to persuade the Pope to adopt the 
plan arranged for him and to leave Rome. 

Under his persuasions, Pio Nono went into his chamber, 
where his personal attendant Filippiani assisted him to 
exchange his white robes for the cassock of a mere priest. 
"He wept bitterly while doing so," says the writer from 
whom this account is taken. " The heart of the good shep- 
herd bled for his ungrateful sheep, who had misunderstood 



PIO NO no. 53 

his loving-kindness, and whom he was now abandoning to 
ravenous wolves." 

This, however, was by no means the view of the situ- 
ation taken by the Roman populace. 

When dressed, the Pontiff flung himself upon his knees at 
the foot of his bed, and remained so long in prayer that his 
attendant was obliged to warn him that no more time could 
be spared. He rose at once, evidently strengthened and 
refreshed by those moments of devotion. On returning to 
the room where the Due de Harcourt was still waiting, the 
latter, after a few words of encouragement, knelt and asked 
for the pontifical blessing. Then he hurried the departure 
of the Pope. Filippiani took a little bundle under his 
cloak containing a few private papers, the pontifical seals, 
his master's breviary, a few articles of clothing and a box 
containing some gold medals. They passed down a back 
staircase to a side door. 

The Ambassador, meanwhile, remained alone listening 
anxiously to hear the wheels of the carriage which from an 
inner courtyard was to bear the Pope from the Quirinal. 
When, at last, he heard it drive off, he picked up some 
newspapers lying on a table, and from time to time read 
paragraphs aloud in as conversational a tone of voice as 
possible. By this means, and by the remark made in the 
hearing of the sentinels as he was going away, he secured 
some hours to the Holy Father during which his flight was 
unsuspected. By the time it was found out he was over 
the frontier. 

Pio Nono, bearing in his bosom a golden ball which had 
once belonged to Pius VII. and which contained the wafers 
of the Eucharist, went, as I said, accompanied by Filippiani, 
along a secret passage to an old side door of the Quirinal 
which had been kept closed for many years. A faithful ser- 
vant was upon the watch. At the proper signal he endeav- 
ored to open the door, but found he had not been provided 
with the right key. The Pope knelt down and prayed, 
while Filippiani went back to get the key changed. 

At last the heavy wards turned back in the rusty lock, and 



54 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the fugitives passed out without having been discovered. 
They went through several dark passages, and at length 
reached a narrow staircase which led them into one of the 
interior courtyards of the Palace. There the carriage was 
waiting. " Good evening, comrades," said Filippiani to 
some National Guards who were posted there. " Good 
evening, Filippiani," they responded, without taking any 
notice of the priest who accompanied him. 

As the Pope was getting into the carriage he came very 
near being betrayed by his footman, who, forgetting that his 
master must preserve a strict i?icognito, made a motion to 
kneel as the custom was at the papal Court. The Pope 
made him a quick sign, and happily the guards had not 
observed the blunder. 

Over twenty of the Pope's servants had been in the se- 
cret, but not one betrayed him. 

At last, by by-streets, the carriage reached a spot at which 
Count Spaur, the Bavarian ambassador, was waiting with 
another carriage. Here the Pope parted with Filippiani, 
and got into the carriage of Count Spaur. At the gate of the 
city they were asked to give their names. " The Bavarian 
Ambassador and Doctor Alertz, Professor of Theology," was 
the answer. "Where are you going?" "To Albano." 
" Pass," and the carriage was in a moment outside the city. 
The Pope, who sat silent, looked back and sighed deeply. 
Nor did he say another word during his journey. 

At Albano, the Countess Theresa Spaur was awaiting their 
arrival. She had been there some hours with her son, a lad 
of fourteen and the Abbe" Sebastian Liebl, a priest from 
Germany, who was her son's tutor. She had been growing 
very uneasy, till at last a message from her husband reached 
her, desiring her to change her route, and meet him at a 
little village called Arrica. She set out at once, and on 
reaching Arrica found five soldiers standing round her hus- 
band's carriage. The Pope had alighted and was leaning 
against a railing. 

The Countess for a moment was overcome by fear. Then 
she summoned to her aid all her wits and all her courage. 



PIO NO NO. 55 

She feigned to be exceedingly angry with her husband and 
the " Doctor," declaring it had been too bad of them to 
keep her waiting at Albano when they knew how she dis- 
liked to travel in the dark. Then she began talking to the 
soldiers, who were anxious to escort the x^mbassador's car- 
riage, saying that the road was not safe after nightfall. The 
party found it hard to decline their services. The Countess 
had not left her carriage, the Pope took his place beside 
her, her son and his tutor sat opposite to them, the Count 
and a footman mounted the box. Suddenly the Countess 
perceived with horror that the Pope had forgotten to change 
the white silk stockings that he wore, as Pontiff, for black 
ones. She also thought he would have done better to wear 
spectacles. However, no harm came of these blunders. 
The soldiers, satisfied with a donation, made their acknowl- 
edgments, by extreme politeness. They closed the carriage 
door ; and, drawn by six good horses ridden by postilions, 
the travelling party galloped, — not toward Civita Vecchia, 
where the French steamer was waiting to receive them, — 
but across the frontier into the Kingdom of Naples. 

The Pope sat on the back seat, with the Countess Spaur 
beside him. She was hardly able to restrain her tears. All 
the way as they went the Pope was praying, or reciting 
prayers from the Breviary with Father Liebl. As they 
crossed the frontier at Terracina, about eight o'clock in the 
morning, " he shed many tears, and thanked God for His 
protection," says Madame Spaur; "in the beautiful thanks- 
giving provided by the Church for deliverance from 
danger." 

I have told at some length of the flight of the Pope be- 
cause this account is from authentic sources. 1 It has been 
often falsely said that Pio Nono escaped disguised as a 
footman in livery. 

In Rome other things at once commanded public in- 
terest and attention. Indeed, most people were glad of 
the Pope's escape, and quoted the proverb which says : If 

1 A paper by the Countess in the " Supplement Litteraire du 
Figaro." 



56 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

your enemy wishes to flee from you, build him a bridge 
of gold. 

Rome, deserted by its Pontiff, fell at once into the hands 
of the Republicans. A Constituent Assembly, that is, an 
Assembly called to make a Constitution, which was elected 
in defiance of the Pope's brief, assembled in February, 
1849, — just one year after Louis Philippe's downfall, and 
two months after Louis Napoleon had been elected Presi- 
dent of the French Republic. 

This Assembly declared the temporal government of the 
Papacy to have fallen, in fact and in right, and established 
a Roman Republic. 

But meantime terrible disasters to the Italian cause had 
been happening in both Northern and Southern Italy. 

Austria had re-established her grip on Lombardy ; King 
Ferdinand II. of Naples (whom history will always know as 
King Bomba) had resumed his brutal sway in Naples ; the 
Roman volunteers who without orders had crossed the Po 
into Lombardy, had been crushed and cut to pieces ; Pied- 
mont had hard work to preserve her independence ; Venice 
alone held out — as we shall see hereafter. All hopes of a 
United Italy were lost, whether as a Federation of Repub- 
lics, or as a kingdom under one ruler. 

The leading man in Rome among the populace, during 
the brief duration of the Roman Republic was named (or 
rather was popularly nicknamed) Ciceruacchio. He was a 
street orator, a sort of tribune of the people, a man of the 
old Roman stamp. He was a street truck- man by profes- 
sion, and refused to leave his calling, or to be elected to any 
office, but whenever it was necessary to calm or to excite 
the mob he was on hand to do so. He had two sons, who 
assisted him. His subsequent fate, when the day of reckon- 
ing came, is a mystery. No one has ever known with cer- 
tainty what became of him or of one of his sons. 

Mazzini came to Rome as soon as the Constituent 
Assembly met, and was made one of a triumvirate to govern 
the Republic. But in the midst of Italian disaster, with 
Austria ready to march in upon her on one side, and a 



PIO NO no. 57 

Neapolitan army on the other, what could the poor little 
Roman Republic do ? Her very existence — could she 
have continued to exist — would have compromised the 
prospect of a United Italy. To a United Italy Louis 
Napoleon was pledged. He therefore did not oppose a 
measure, passed through the French Assembly (which was 
largely Legitimist and Catholic), to send French troops to 
Rome, — ostensibly to keep the Austrians from getting 
possession of the States of the Church and taking cruel 
vengeance on the inhabitants, but really to sustain the 
Pope and throw a sop to Catholic Christendom. 

On the morning of April 26, 1849, to the amazement of 
the Roman people, a French fleet anchored off Civita 
Vecchia. An officer came on shore, and begged permission 
of the Governor of the city to land a French army which 
was on board. "The French Republic," he said, "knows 
that you are threatened by an Austrian invasion, and has 
sent her soldiers to watch the progress of the Austrians in 
Italy, knowing that progress to be against the true interests 
of France." 

The Commandant at Civita Vecchia openly expressed 
his suspicion that the object of the French was to restore 
the Pope and to destroy the Roman Republic. "That 
cannot be," replied the French officer; "the fifth article of 
the Constitution of the French Republic declares that she 
will never bear arms against the freedom of any people." 

The French, therefore, were permitted to land at Civita 
Vecchia and at once proceeded to march upon Rome. 
The very flower of the Roman youth had, as I have said, 
been recently cut to pieces in battle with the Austrians 
beyond the Po ; but the Garda Civile, the Roman National 
Guard, proceeded to make all possible resistance. They 
fought the French like lions, and at tremendous disadvan- 
tage. After two days of continuous fighting, General 
Oudinot and his French army were repulsed. 

In those days our poor Margaret Fuller Ossoli was in 
Rome, and served with all other married Roman ladies in 
the hospitals. Ciceruacchio animated the populace. Bar- 



58 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

ricades everywhere arose in the streets. Trees and gardens 
were destroyed, to give no cover to the invaders. 

But victory over French Republicans availed Roman 
Republicans little. The French, unused to defeat, were 
furious. The French army was reinforced ; the Austrians 
entered the Roman States on the north, the King of 
Naples on the southeast ; even Spain sent her soldiers to 
aid the cause of the Pope, and on July i, 1849, tne City of 
Rome notified the French that it gave up resistance, though 
it would not capitulate. On July 3 the French took pos- 
session of the city, under protest from the Constituent 
Assembly, and the Pope was restored. 

Louis Napoleon said afterwards that he had expected the 
Pope would have used his victory with mercy and modera- 
tion, but Pio Nono was now, — and forever after, — in spite 
of his kind heart and good intentions, the mere tool of 
Austria, doing whatever she might direct. Cardinal Anto- 
nelli governed. The Pope had been thoroughly frightened. 
He mistrusted himself and his people. Thenceforward he 
resigned himself to the position made for him, and, as a 
temporal ruler, did only what he was told. 

During the first two years of the Pope's restoration there 
were two hundred and thirty people executed for their share 
in making Rome a republic for four months, besides all 
who died in the pestiferous air of the overcrowded prisons, 
where eight thousand were incarcerated. The number of 
the exiled was about twenty thousand, including those who 
fled for fear of being prosecuted. 

There is no example in history of a more extensive ven- 
geance taken by any civilized monarch restored to his 
throne. Besides these exiles, imprisonments, and executions, 
in the space of eight months six thousand youths of the 
best families in Rome had perished in battle. I say " of 
the best families in Rome," for all through the Italian 
struggle for independence the chief weight of effort, sacri- 
fice, vengeance, disappointment, and despair fell on the 
cultivated class, not on the lower orders. 



CHAPTER III. 

SOUTHERN ITALY. 

OICILY had derived a Constitution from Roger, son of 
^ her Norman conqueror. The Northmen lived in their 
own country under a rude constitutional government. 
Under all vicissitudes of fortune, thirty-four successive kings 
had respected it. It was reserved for King Ferdinand I., 
who ascended the throne in 1759, to destroy, in his hatred 
of all Liberalism, intensified by his horror of the French 
Revolution, this time-honored Constitution which the Sicil- 
ians held so dear. 

It is no pleasure to Englishmen to recollect that this 
Ferdinand and his disreputable wife, Queen Caroline, were 
the royal pair protected by Lord Nelson, and bosom friends 
of Lady Hamilton, then wife of the British ambassador at 
Naples. 

At eight years of age, in 1759, King Ferdinand received 
the throne of Naples from his father, Charles III. of Spain, 
and he grew up destitute of even the first rudiments of edu- 
cation, nor had he ever any knowledge of, or respect for, the 
commonest principles of government. He loved hunting, 
low company, and dissipation. He thought it good fun to 
sell fish in the markets of Naples disguised as a fisherman. 
He once opened a booth in his camp at Portici and sold 
wine and cakes to his soldiers, assisted by his queen and 
his courtiers. Writing his name bothered him so much 
that he had a stamp made to serve instead of his signature. 

With this hatred for business, he was willing enough to 
turn over his power to his queen, daughter of Maria Theresa 
and sister of Marie Antoinette. Insatiable in ambition, 



60 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

courageous, energetic, dissolute, and vindictive, she was 
more like the Brunehildes and Fredegondes we read of in the 
annals of the Merovingians, than a woman of comparatively 
modern times. My father always called her " that vile 
woman," and he had known her when serving in the Medi- 
terranean as an English naval officer. 

It was in 1798 that the wrath of King Ferdinand was 
kindled against his Parliament in Sicily, and he resolved to 
put it down. It had refused to grant his demand for forty 
thousand dollars a month, for so long as he might deem that 
sum necessary. The Parliament objected, — not to giving 
the money asked, but to making the grant for an indefinite 
time. 

The story of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily is stirring, 
picturesque, and interesting during the first twenty years of 
the nineteenth century, but it cannot be told here. To 
Murat's reign, an Italian gentleman in 1850 told Mr. Senior, 
Naples owed all the progress it had made during the last 
three or four centuries. "He gave us," he said, "open 
legal procedure, the abolition of class privileges, the dimi- 
nution of ecclesiastical property, and the few roads that we 
possess. Now all is going backward." 

Ferdinand, when expelled from Naples by the French in 
1806, took up his residence in Palermo. His administra- 
tion in Sicily, which was absolutely despotic, provoked in- 
surrection, and, without exactly abdicating, he was easily 
induced to rid himself of responsibility and annoyance by 
turning over the conduct of affairs in Sicily to his son 
Francis, the Prince of Syracuse. 

Francis, under the advice, not to say the coercion, of his 
English protectors, granted Sicily a Constitution, and con- 
firmed it by a solemn oath. This document is known in 
history as the Constitution of 181 2. It was guaranteed to 
the Sicilians by the British Government, and during the two 
years that it was in force Francis was a popular king. 

At the Congress of Vienna the Emperor Alexander had 
advocated the retention of Mural as King of Naples, saying 
that he " would not assist in restoring a butcher like Ferdi- 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 6l 

nand to power." This broke the wicked old queen's heart ; 
but the heart of her husband was set on regaining his two 
crowns, thereby deposing his son Francis, who had been 
acknowledged King of Sicily by the Sicilians. He suc- 
ceeded in this, and abrogated the Sicilian Constitution, — 
Lord Castlereagh, who always espoused the cause of kings 
against their subjects, taking no steps to oppose him. 
Thenceforward, Ferdinand of Bourbon governed as he 
pleased, and Sicily became a hell upon earth for any man 
who desired progress or any kind of improvement, even of 
the most material description. 

In 1820, a revolution in Spain forced another Spanish 
Bourbon, Ferdinand VII., to revive a Constitution framed 
by the Cortes during the brief reign of Joseph Bonaparte, 
and it became necessary for his kinsman, Ferdinand of 
Naples, as an Infant of Spain, to sign the document. Thus 
both the Spanish and the Neapolitan king became pledged 
to countenance constitutional government in Spain, and this 
excited the hopes of the Liberals in Naples. 

I will give here the story of the uprising of 1820 in 
Naples, as it has been briefly told by John Webb Probyn, in 
his "History of Italy from 1813 to 1890." 

" The desire for constitutional government spread rapidly 
through the Neapolitan kingdom. The army joined in the 
movement, and, under the leadership of General Pepe, united 
in a demand for a Constitution such as had been granted to 
Spain. The monsters urged King Ferdinand to yield. On 
July 6, 1820, he published an edict in which he declared that, 
the general wish of the nation having been made known to him 
in favor of a constitutional government, he, with the utmost 
willingness, gave his consent, and promised to publish the basis 
on which it should be founded within eight days. 

"At the end of that time the Spanish Constitution was 
selected. General Pepe was placed in command of the army, 
and to him the King said: ' I would have granted a Constitu- 
tion before if the utility of it, or the general desire for it, had 
been manifested. I thank God, who has permitted me in my 
old age to do a great good to my kingdom.' 

"Some days after this, the King, having heard mass in the 
Royal Chapel, approached the altar, and in presence of the 



62 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

assembled ministers, courtiers, and others, took the oath to the 
Constitution. Then, fixing his eyes on the Cross, he added, of 
his own accord : ' Omnipotent God, who with infinite penetra- 
tion lookest into the hearts of men and into the future, if I lie, 
or if one day I should be faithless to my oath, do Thou at this 
instant annihilate me.' 

" His sons took the oath also, and they embraced one another 
with tears. What had taken place in the Royal Chapel was 
quickly known throughout Naples, and caused the utmost joy. 
On October I the Parliament was opened in person by the 
King, who was accompanied by the royal princes. The whole 
of Naples poured forth to greet them. The King's every look 
and gesture expressed his pleasure. Amidst a tumult of ap- 
plause he ascended the throne, and with his hand outstretched 
on the Gospel, took once again the oath to the Constitution. 
. . . Festivities and fireworks expressed the general joy." 

The Sicilian Constitution of 1812 was more liberal than 
the Spanish Constitution adopted in Naples, especially in 
matters relating to religion. The Sicilians wanted their own 
Constitution, not that which had been granted to Naples — 
and, indeed, aspired to a division of the two kingdoms. 
There was discontent and a rising in Sicily, and soon two 
events occurred which gave to the affairs of Italy a different 
turn. 

The Allied Sovereigns, mindful of their engagement to 
crush all attempts to violate the provisions of the Congress of 
Vienna, and to put down, either by diplomacy or force, all 
efforts at revolution, appointed France to march an army in 
the name of the Holy Alliance into Spain, while Austria 
undertook to suppress constitutionalism in Italy. King 
Ferdinand received messages of decided disapproval from 
Vienna, and was summoned to a meeting with the Emperors 
of Austria and Russia at Laybach. He went accordingly, 
leaving behind him a special message to his Parliament, 
assuring them that, whatever might be the outcome of the 
conference at Laybach, he would "do all in his power 
in order that his people should remain in possession 
of a wise and free Constitution on the basis of a funda- 
mental law that would secure personal liberty ; no regard to 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 63 

be paid to privileges of birth in the matter of State rights ; 
no taxes without the consent of the nation as legitimately 
represented : the power of the parliament to make all laws ; 
the judges to be independent ; the press virtually free ; and 
ministers responsible. Furthermore," he continued, " I 
declare that I will never allow any of my subjects to be 
molested on account of any political matter that has 
happened." He further promised that he would, if neces- 
sary, return to Naples and defend it by force of arms. 

On reaching Laybach he soon found that all that had 
passed during six or eight months in Naples was considered 
disorder and revolution, and if he could not bring back his 
subjects to rest content under a despotism, Austria, Russia, 
and Prussia were ready to march armies into the Two 
Sicilies as France was about to do into Spain. 

The Austrians, indeed, by the will of the Allied Sov- 
ereigns had already quartered thirty-five thousand men in 
King Ferdinand's dominions, and they kept them there 
during the brief remainder of his reign and that of his 
son. 

On March 15, 1822, King Ferdinand I. returned to his 
capital. " He re-established despotism, and condemned 
all who had taken part in the movement which had led to 
the establishment of a Constitution — that Constitution to 
which he himself had more than once solemnly sworn." 

"During the years 1821 and 1822," says the historian Farini, 
" eight hundred citizens were for the cause of liberty condemned 
to death ; more than double that number were sentenced to im- 
prisonment, or to the galleys. Those driven into exile, or 
obliged to fly, were so numerous that it is impossible correctly 
to estimate their numbers ; and nearly all bore their unmerited 
misfortunes with courage and fortitude." 

King Ferdinand died in 1825 ; the reign of his son and 
successor, Francis I., lasted only five years. The former 
was the father of the Duchesse de Berri and of Queen 
Christina of Spain, neither of them being a lady sans re- 
proche. During the brief reign of King Francis, his king- 
doms may be said to have been held in possession by the 



64 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Austrians. He was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand II., 
commonly known to us as King Bomba, a name given him 
some years after his accession by the English " Punch," 
which conferred it on him when he showed no hesitation to 
bombard his own subjects in their own cities. 

His first wife was the Princess Christina of Savoy, whom 
the Neapolitans adored as a good and gracious lady and 
almost a saint. She died early, however, after having given 
birth to a son, and her death was attributed to a brutal 
trick played on her a few weeks before her child's birth by 
her husband. His second wife was an Austrian princess. 
He was a tall, large-limbed man, of very commonplace 
intellect, and of the most determined despotic opinions. 

In 1847, when Italy became excited by the astounding 
phenomenon of a Liberal pope, the Neapolitan subjects of 
King Ferdinand broke into insurrection at Reggio, pro- 
testing their loyalty to the King, but demanding a Consti- 
tution — the Constitution that had been granted to Sicily 
and then revoked thirty-five years before. Reggio stands 
on a headland near the Straits of Messina. A war steamer 
was sent to bombard the town, bombardment being King 
Ferdinand's favorite stroke of policy, and the insurrection 
was put down, its suppression being followed by horrible 
cruelties. 

In a few months, however, when all Italy was in a blaze, 
King Ferdinand II. found himself obliged to grant his 
kingdom of Naples its desired Constitution, including a 
Liberal ministry and a National Guard. He also (possibly 
with a view of getting rid of fighting patriots) allowed an 
army of seventeen thousand volunteers to set forth to fight 
the Austrians in Northern Italy, under the command of 
General Pepe, who, however, received secret orders, after he 
had started, not to lead his troops across the Po. 

" Unfortunately," says Lawrence Oliphant, " newspaper cor- 
respondence was then in its infancy, and posterity will have but 
a comparatively meagre record of the exciting scenes, and stirring 
events in these two great years (1848 and 1849) of Italian revolu- 
tion. If it was distasteful to the Pope, as I, who saw the tears 




KING FERDINAND II, 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 



65 



roll down his cheeks, deemed it was, to bless the volunteers with 
their banners and their cannon who were setting forth to fight 
the Austrians, it was still more hateful to the King of Naples to 
have to grant a Constitution to his subjects, and swear to keep 
it, upon crossed swords, which I saw him do with great solem- 
nity in a church after a revolution which had lasted three days, 
and in which the troops refused to fire on the people. It was 
true he had no intention of keeping his oath, and broke it shortly 
afterwards, but the moment was none the less humiliating, and 
his face was an interesting study." 

There is great difficulty in writing the history of Italy 
during the years 1848 and 1849, when the peninsula in 
every part was filled with revolutionary confusion. Each 
section, — and I think we may say there were eleven of 
them, — was making its own revolution at the same time ; 
all picturesque, all filled with genuine patriotism and ani- 
mated by enthusiasm, all hot-headed more or less, and all, 
alas ! all ending in disaster. 

In May, 1848, a quarrel among the deputies elected to 
the Parliament that was to meet in Naples excited the pop- 
ulace. Barricades were erected in the streets. Shots were 
fired. The guns of the forts bombarded Naples. The 
army was devoted to the King, who had been proud of his 
soldiers' military appearance, and the lazzaroni were on his 
side, stimulated by hopes of plunder. 

The King and his party triumphed. The Chamber of 
Deputies was forbidden to meet, and constitutional govern- 
ment came to an end. 

"On the evening of May 18, 1848,'' writes an eye-witness, 
'•the most beautiful city of Italy presented a terrible spectacle. 
Palaces were burned and plundered; the streets were strewn 
with the dead and dying; the groans of the wounded were 
drowned by the obscene ribaldry of the soldiers and the popu- 
lace ; everywhere was squalid contention, in every family there 
was agitation, and in every breast was grief and dread. Liberty 
was extinguished. Reaction had begun." 

The fighting of that day was but the beginning of many 
sorrows. Mr. Gladstone in the winter of 1850-51 made a 
journey to Naples, and stirred the heart of Christendom by 

5 



66 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

letters, written to Lord Aberdeen in 1852, 

counts of atrocities and prison cruelties that had come 

under his own observation in Naples and Sicily. 

About the same time a book also was published which 
bore on the same subject, Runini's beautiful novel " Doctor 
Antonio." The Sicilians had been disappointed in their 
aspirations for autonomy. They were a restless and a reck- 
less people. In the first seventeen years of King Ferdi- 
nand's reign, — from 1830 to 1848, — there were six risings 
in Sicily. One was in 1837, when, the cholera being in 
Naples, some quarantine regulations were put in force by 
the Sicilians. King Ferdinand, however, insisted that they 
could make no laws or regulations to prevent his doing 
what he liked in his dominions ; and he sent a ship, loaded 
with the clothes and accoutrements of soldiers who had 
died of the cholera, to break the quarantine. The result 
was the introduction of the cholera into Sicily ; thirty thou- 
sand people in Palermo alone are said to have died of it. 
The populace believed that their King had deliberately 
introduced the disease to decimate them, and to prevent 
insurrection. Absurd as this suspicion may have been, it 
roused all classes to fury and despair, and they broke into 
revolt immediately. 

We may as well here tell the story of the insurrection of 
1848 and 1849 in Sicily, returning to say a few words 
concerning events simultaneously taking place in King 
Ferdinand's Neapolitan dominions. 

On January 9. 1848, when all Europe was ablaze for re- 
form and freedom, the people of Palermo notified King 
Bomba that if, by January 12 (his birthday), he did not 
give them back their Constitution of 181 2. they would break 
into insurrection. 

The day opened with glorious sunshine. The forts and 
the shipping fired salutes in honor of the thirty-eighth birth- 
day of their sovereign. But in a few hours the people of 
Palermo were as good as their word. They were fighting 
with the war-cry of " Long live the Constitution ! Long live 
Pio Nono ! " 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 6j 

The best men in Sicily headed the revolt, and for several 
days it went on. One success followed another. The 
Neapolitan troops, who garrisoned Palermo, very quietly 
submitted to be disarmed by the Sicilians. 

While reading accounts of this insurrection in Sicily, I 
came upon a paper entitled " Cruelties in Sicilian Political 
Prisons." It described what the populace of Palermo dis- 
covered when they broke into the secret chambers con- 
nected with the offices of the police. The details (which 
I have since found elsewhere repeated) are too sicken- 
ing to be recorded in this place, — too revolting to 
humanity. 

About two weeks after the insurrection first broke out, the 
royal troops evacuated Palermo, the general in command 
setting free, before he left, all the brigands and other crim- 
inals confined in the prison. This, by a royal order, was 
always done on such occasions, and this time arms were dis- 
tributed to the malefactors, that they might strike terror into 
the citizens. At first, however, this fiend-like policy failed to 
take effect. The miserable famine-stricken wretches, who 
crowded into Palermo in the gray dawn of a winter day, to 
the terror of the inhabitants, only asked for bread to ap- 
pease their hunger, their jailers having left them on the 
verge of starvation, and the greater part of them asked per- 
mission to join the defenders of their country. This they 
were allowed to do, and for a while the solemn vows of 
subordination and honesty which accompanied their appli- 
cation were observed with singular fidelity. Many fought 
with great bravery, but when the first excitement passed 
away, most of them returned to their old habits, and, rein- 
forced by other criminals and bandits, turned loose on 
Sicily from the prisons of Naples, became a frightful source 
of reproach and of disaster. 

The King's army, when it evacuated Palermo, left deso- 
lation behind it as it marched along. Vineyards and 
gardens were destroyed, palaces and cabins were sacked 
and burned. Old men and the helpless were murdered, 
and their heads were carried on the march on soldiers' 



68 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

bayonets. But before long the Sicilians had their hour of 
revenge, and in their turn committed savage atrocities. 

After a three days' march across the island the royal 
army embarked for Naples on the night of January 31, 
1848, burning on the beach all the arms, clothing, and 
knapsacks that they could not carry with them, and killing 
many of their horses. 

Unhappily the men of Palermo devoted the next month 
to rejoicings over their easy victory, instead of driving the 
King's forces from their great stronghold, the citadel of 
Messina. But they felt confident that England would inter- 
pose in their behalf, and would insist on the restoration of 
the Constitution which in 181 2 she had guaranteed. Earl 
Minto, who was on a sort of travelling embassy at that time 
through the excited States of Italy, warmly sympathized 
with the Sicilian patriots, and went further in his promises 
of help than Lord Palmerston had authorized him to do. 
His negotiations between King Bomba and his revolted 
people utterly failed, and he took leave of the Sicilians, ex- 
pressing his hope that " they would not suffer themselves to 
fall into the calamities of a republic." 

On March 25, 1848, the Sicilian Parliament opened. It 
was no turbulent or extremely radical assembly. Arch- 
bishops, bishops, mitred abbots, noblemen whose ancestors 
seven centuries before had sat in the councils of the Nor- 
man Roger, composed its House of Peers. Its commons 
had been elected from the younger sons of the nobility, the 
general body of the clergy, professors from the universities, 
lawyers, and landowners. Men all over Europe believed 
that the knell of despotism was sounding in their ears. 
The Revolution of February in France, unexpected as it 
was even to its promoters, who sought only reform, had 
sent an electric thrill through Central Europe. Berlin and 
Vienna were in revolt; Italy had sprung into revolution 
like a giant refreshed from sleep ; Milan and Venice had 
driven the Austrians from their walls ; and Charles Albert 
was beginning his early victories. The Sicilian Parliament, 
having voted the deposition of King Ferdinand and the 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 69 

Bourbons, decided to offer their crown to Ferdinand Albert 
Amadeus, Duke of Genoa, the second son of Charles 
Albert, stipulating, however, that he should take the name 
of Albert Amadeus, the very name of Ferdinand being hate- 
ful to them all. Louis Napoleon, not yet fully anticipating 
his higher destiny, had offered himself as a candidate, but 
no one gave him a vote. 

A deputation was sent from Sicily before the final choos- 
ing of a king, to ascertain the feeling on the subject in 
the other Italian States. Everywhere the deputation met 
with cordial sympathy. Even Leopold of Tuscany prom- 
ised to recognize the new kingdom. The Pope excused 
himself for not having been foremost in welcoming Sicilian 
independence, on the ground that he was a near neighbor 
to King Ferdinand, but promised to follow the lead of the 
other Italian States. He praised the humanity and gener- 
osity of the revolution, admitted its justice, and censured 
the conduct of King Ferdinand. "What better token do 
you desire than this?" he said, " I receive you — I embrace 
you, — I bless you, — and with you the whole of Italy ! " 

Meantime, a reaction had taken place in the affairs of 
Naples. King Ferdinand, urged by Austria, and supported 
by her armed force, had broken his oath to uphold the 
Constitution, had dismissed his Liberal ministers with in- 
sults and had recalled his troops from the Romagna, where 
they had been waiting impatiently for an order to cross the 
Po. Charles Albert had fought and lost the battle of 
Custozza ; and had withdrawn his troops into his own 
dominions. Venice alone held out against the Austrians, 
and General Pepe, 1 with a small body of Neapolitan troops, 

1 In 1 84 1 we were in Paris, and saw a good deal of General Pepe, 
then in exile. He was a tall, soldierly, gray-haired man, very inti- 
mate with our neighbors, Dr. and Mrs. Gilchrist, from Edinburgh. 
He spoke English fluently, but with an extraordinary accent, having 
engrafted a broad Scotch pronunciation on that of Ttalv. In 1841 I 
was wholly unacquainted with Italian politics, but the General inter- 
ested my father very much. I was, however, struck by the complete 
misapprehension of the social workings of republican " liberty " in 
America, held by some of the exiles in Paris at that period,— men 
of intelligence of whom I saw a good deal. — E. W. L. 



JO ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

who refused obedience to the orders of their King, suc- 
ceeded in reinforcing the garrison of that city. 

The main body of King Ferdinand's troops returned to 
Naples, but were not suffered by an English fleet, then in 
Italian waters, to cross over into Sicily. The English 
squadron lay anchored off Naples to prevent any interfer- 
ence with the patriots of Sicily. The flag of the Sicilians 
was recognized, and in July, 1848, a French war steamer 
bore to Genoa the deputation that was to offer to King 
Charles Albert's second son the crown of Sicily. That 
young man was even more popular than his brother Victor 
Emmanuel. He was a brave soldier, a well-educated and 
accomplished gentleman, and he was in command of one 
division of the Piedmontese army. When the deputation, 
sent to offer him a crown, arrived in the Piedmontese 
camp, the Prince was not at headquarters. But the King, 
his father, promised that he should arrive the next day, and 
give the Sicilian deputation an official reception. Every- 
thing indicated to the embassy a happy conclusion of their 
errand, but the official reception on the morrow never took 
place. That night the Sardinians were surprised by the 
veteran Austrian general, Radetzky, and a series of rapid 
reverses forced Charles Albert to abandon Lombardy, and 
to retire into his own dominions. The Duke of Genoa was 
no longer an eligible candidate for the Sicilian throne. 

The unexpected defeat of Charles Albert changed the 
policy of the English government. It was evident that 
Austria and despotism, and Austrian influence, were to 
triumph. England withdrew her protection from Sicily, 
and the army of King Ferdinand appeared before Messina. 

For nearly eight months the guns of that citadel had 
been firing into the town. On Good Friday, 1849, when 
the inhabitants of Messina attempted to visit their churches, 
terrible havoc among them took place. After the Neapo- 
litan fleet arrived, and combined with the citadel in bom- 
barding the town, the inhabitants held out for five days. 
Then the troops of King Bomba forced their way into the 
ruined city. For three days, pillage, destruction, and all 




SO UTHERN ITAL Y. J I 

the other horrors of war went on. Then the commanders 
of the English and French fleets, who had been forced to 
look passively upon these things, joined on their own 
responsibility in a representation to the general in chief of 
the Neapolitan troops, imploring him to cease in the name 
of humanity. 

Two miles of buildings had been burnt down, compre- 
hending the most sumptuous palaces and churches. The 
fate of Messina sealed the fate of Sicily. Then came the 
news of Charles xAlbert's crushing defeat at Novara. Austria 
and her allies were triumphant over all the Italian penin- 
sula, and the Sicilians had to await the dawn of a better 
day, — which came twelve years later, when Italy had learned 
many lessons which made her more fit to profit by reforms. 

Had the revolutions of 1848 succeeded in Italy, there 
would have now been no United Italy, but a federation of 
petty states, kingdoms or republics, which, like the States of 
Italy in the Middle Ages, or the States of South America in 
our own day, would doubtless have exhausted their strength 
in quarrels with each other. During the long years of wait- 
ing for relief that followed 1849, the Italian people were 
educating for the change in store for them, and other 
nations were educating to rejoice when that change came to 
them. 

When the general of King Bomba was about to .destroy 
Palermo with his bombs as he had done Messina, the 
French Admiral interposed. By his mediation King Fer- 
dinand was induced to promise the Sicilians a kind of Con- 
stitution, — one of his own sons as their Viceroy, a National 
Guard, and an amnesty, which should except only forty 
persons. The Sicilians submitted, — and not one of these 
promises was ever fulfilled. 

Martial law was proclaimed the moment that the King 
resumed his power. Every man found with arms in his 
possession (even a fowling-piece) was at once shot. In a 
few days upwards of one thousand people were put to death 
for this offence alone. The prisons — the horrible prisons 
— were filled with political captives, and every ship that 



J 2 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

sailed from the Sicilian shores bore away fresh exiles. New 
taxes were imposed, and a fine of twenty millions of ducats 
laid on the Sicilian people, — " such being," said the ordi- 
nance, '-the cost of insurrections." 

Palermo was garrisoned by fourteen thousand troops to 
keep it quiet, and forty cannon in the citadel, always loaded, 
pointed down the streets. The power of the police was 
terrible ; men were beaten to death on political suspicion. 
No modern inventions were permitted in Sicily. No rail- 
roads ; no telegraph lines ; no gas in the streets, though 
the inhabitants of the cities earnestly petitioned for it. No 
steamers were allowed to touch at the island unless they 
came from Naples. In order to keep the people in igno- 
rance of political events, the mails and newspapers were 
often stopped altogether. The roads were purposely kept 
almost impassable. An officer of the royal army, having 
undertaken to repair a road, was reprimanded. The island 
seemed cut off from the rest of the world. 

For seventeen years, in Paris, London, Genoa, Turin, 
Malta, and Nice lived the representative men of Sicily. 
Driven from home, from wealth and station, they bided 
their time, not altogether without hope, and in i860 that 
time came. 

As exiles they were at least happier than those who 
languished in the prisons. 

To return for a moment to the year 1848 and the affairs 
of the kingdom of Naples. When, in February of that year, 
King Ferdinand took God Almighty to witness that he was 
sincere in his desire to govern as a constitutional king 
(having a few weeks before declared that he would rather 
put on the uniform of a Russian colonel than grant one 
inch to his subjects), he appointed a Liberal ministry, at 
the head of which w r as Carlo Poerio, one of a family of 
patriots. Carlo was born when his father was an exile 
after his share in the attempt to win a Constitution for his 
country in 1820. 

" Poerio stands before the world as the typical victim of 
Neapolitan misgovernment," says the Countess Martinengo 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 



73 



Cesaresco, writing of Italian characters in those years of 
revolution : — 

" The conspicuous position he so lately held as minister to the 
Crown, the large social circle by which he was known personally 
to be a man of high talent, and unblemished honor, not less than 
the extraordinary network of iniquity woven to obtain his con- 
viction on a charge of high treason, contributed to give his case 
greater prominence than that of any other of the prisoners. It 
was known also of Carlo Poerio that his political views were 
strictly moderate, that reverence for law was at least as strong 
in him as love of liberty, and this was another reason why he 
attracted sympathy, especially in England, among those who 
most disliked revolutionary methods." 

When King Ferdinand resumed despotic sway in Naples, 
being secure of the assistance and sympathy of the Aus- 
trians, now victorious in Lombardy, and in their struggle in 
Hungary, he summarily dissolved the Parliament, which 
had sat # six weeks. 

" He resumed his absolutist sway, rejoiced at the overthrow of 
that Italian liberty which he had promised to aid 'by all his 
forces by sea and land,' and became one of the firmest supporters 
of Austrian influence and despotism." 

Farini, the most trusted Italian historian of the period, 
writes : — 

" Naples became the prey of his furious rage ; whoever was 
known for his love of Italy, and fidelity to the Constitution, was 
either obliged to find refuge on board foreign ships from the 
snares of police agents, and so seek safety in exile, or, afflicted 
with every kind of moral and physical evil, was thrown into 
prison with criminals. . . . There was no guarantee for civil 
rights, no legal check, no shame in the government — nothing 
but insolent tyranny." 

This might seem exaggeration were it not fully corrob- 
orated by impartial witnesses. Here is the state of affairs 
in Naples at the close of 1850, as given to Mr. Nassau 
Senior by an Italian resident in Naples : — 



74 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

" Xo one in any class of society is safe. A mere denuncia- 
tion to the police may occasion his arrest, and when once 
imprisoned he may be forgotten." 

Xo sooner did Ferdinand find it would be safe to throw 
himself into the protecting arms of Austria, than, as I have 
said before, he summarily dismissed his Liberal Ministry, 
and set up a reactionary one. A little later, when he felt 
himself still more secure, ever}- one of his late Liberal 
ministers was put under arrest, two only excepted, Troja 
and Manna, who, having some personal influence with 
members of the new Cabinet, were only placed under strict 
police surveillance, and thus, at the close of 1850, Mr. 
Senior and his friends, Mr. Gladstone and De Tocqueville, 
found them. 

Speaking of Scialoja, a distinguished Roman scholar, who 
was then in close confinement in the dungeons of St. Elmo, 
Troja said to Mr. Senior : — 

"They are afraid of his eloquence if he remains in the coun- 
try, and of his pen if he quits it: so they keep him, and may 
keep him forever, in prison, visible only at intervals to his own 
relations, — and you are not to suppose that a Xeapolitan prison 
resembles a prison in any other part of the civilized world, ex- 
cept, perhaps, Rome. Even before trial, the prisoners are 
chained together, two and two, in irons never taken off for any 
purpose whatever, and weighing between thirty and forty 
pounds. The cells at the Alcana, holding three persons each, 
are about eight feet square, receiving light and air from a hole 
in the top, far below the level of the ground, reeking with damp, 
and swarming with vermin. In Xisida there are rooms not 
twenty feet square in which seventeen or eighteen persons have 
been confined for months, fed only on the blackest bread. 
and soup of which you could not bear the smell. And these are 
untried persons — persons whom the laws of every other country 
treat as innocent, and detain only to insure their safe custody. 
In Procida, in Ischia, and in the other islands which fringe the 
coast, the prisons and the treatment in them are worse even 
than in Xaples.*' 

On December 20, 1850, Mr. Senior was taken to the 
tribunals where forty-two political prisoners were being 



SOUTHERN ITALY. 75 

tried, the principal of whom was Carlo Poerio, whom 
eighteen months before the King had seemingly trusted as 
a friend. The trial took place in the old part of Naples in 
an enormous palace built by the Angevin kings. 

Next day an Italian friend, himself compromised, brought 
Mr. Senior the act of accusation against the forty-two pris- 
oners whose trial he had seen going on the day before. 
Many of them were accused of crimes with which the others 
were not charged, — some, for instance, of having in their 
possession forbidden books, others tricolor scarfs, others 
forbidden weapons. But all were charged with being mem- 
bers of the Society of United Italy, having for its object the 
subversion of all existing sovereignties in the peninsula and 
the conversion of Italy into one federal Republic. 

" The two important prisoners," said the Italian gentleman, 
" to punish whom the trial is got up, are Poerio and a man of 
letters named Settembrini. The judges by whom they are tried 
have been carefully selected, they have also received some 
broad hints as to their personal responsibility in the matter of 
conviction. ... Of four judges who voted for the acquittal of 
some political prisoners at Reggio, — persons against whom 
there was absolutely no evidence, — two were immediately dis- 
missed without pensions, and the other two were removed to an 
inferior court in the most savage part of the Abruzzi. Neapolitan 
judges cannot be expected to resist such a pressure as this." 

Poerio had been warned in July, 1 849, but, doubtful whether 
it was a warning from a friend or a trap laid by the police, 
he took no notice of it. The next day he was placed under 
arrest, and eighteen months after, sentence was passed 
upon him of twenty-four years in chains, and a fine of six 
hundred ducats. It was thus that Mr. Gladstone saw him 
on the island of Nisida, in 1851, when he wrote his cele- 
brated letters on this subject to Lord Aberdeen. These 
letters in the end produced their effect. In 1859, after 
nine years of imprisonment, Poerio was suddenly released. 
King Ferdinand had grown weary of being bothered about 
him. He returned to the world broken in health, and with 
a permanent wound in the leg where his irons had eaten 



j6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

into the flesh. After his release he was never heard to 
utter a bitter word against the King, or any of his other 
persecutors. He was, though associated with criminals, at 
least spared the most intolerable of the miseries that fell on 
some of his fellow-sufferers. He was allowed to choose a 
prisoner with whom he was to be chained, and he chose 
a friend, — a physician. 

The prison of Settembrini was on the rocky island of San 
Stefano, opposite to Gaeta, about thirty miles distant from 
the shore. The only building on the island was the prison, 
in which, when Settembrini reached it, there were seven 
hundred and fifty-eight men confined, including twenty- 
eight political prisoners. These were lodged in ninety-nine 
cells, of which the largest measured about sixteen spans. 
The political prisoners were not placed by themselves, but 
scattered through the building, among the worst class of 
thieves and murderers. 

" Into this dwelling, — into this society," says the Countess 
Cesaresco, " entered Settembrini, a man full of gentle refine- 
ment, of home affections, and of elegant tastes, in the early 
morning of a chilly 6th of February, 1851. Here, by the royal 
clemency he was to abide for life.''' 1 

Three years later, on the anniversary of that day, Settem- 
brini wrote in his journal : — 

" My body and my clothes are soiled ; it is of no use to try 
and keep them clean ; the smoke and dirt make me sickening to 
myself. My spirit is tainted. From association with those 
around me I feel all the hideousness, the horror, the terror of 
crime; had I remorse I should come to believe that I too was a 
criminal. My spirit is being defiled. It seems to me as if my 
hands were also foul with blood and theft. I forget virtue and 
beauty. 

" Oh my God! Father of the unfortunate, Consoler of those 
who suffer, oh ! save my soul from this filth, and if Thou hast 
written that I must here end my sorrowful life, oh ! let that end 
come soon ... I fear to become vile ; I fear my soul growing 
perverted. How can I come before Thee thus? . . . The 
world knows not, nor can it conceive — few are those who know 



SOUTHERN ITALY. J J 

and feel — that the first of all possible and imaginable griefs is 
to watch the ruin of one's own soul ! " 

Settembrini was never allowed to leave his crowded 
dungeon. 

" I cannot see the sea or the earth," he says, " I see only the 
little space of sky above the prison, and yet, by the milder air, 
and by the wonderful purity of the heavens, I feel and remem- 
ber the return of the fourth spring that finds me here." 

There seems to have been no restriction on his use of 
pen and paper, or, the jailers, having no direct orders from 
the government, may themselves have inclined to mercy. 
He procured a copy of the works of Lucian, and the trans- 
lation of that book, together with an introductory life of the 
author, occupied him during the last five years he passed in 
prison. His work was published in 1861, when it was con- 
sidered the best rendering ever made of a prose classic into 
Italian. " A translation," he said himself, " should be a 
work of art ; " and such he had endeavored to make his 
Lucian. 

When nearly ten years had passed, the King, moved by 
the same impulse that had induced him to release Poerio, 
that is, becoming weary of the remonstrances and expostu- 
lations that had never ceased to worry and annoy him since 
the publication of Mr. Gladstone's letters, set free, unex- 
pectedly — and as if by a caprice — sixty-six of his five 
hundred political prisoners. Settembrini was one of these. 
They were embarked on board a Neapolitan war vessel, 
which, off Gibraltar, was to transfer them to an American 
ship bound to New York. But a son of Settembrini, a 
young officer in the Sardinian royal navy, disguised as a 
cook's mate, and passing for a Spaniard, obtained a berth 
on board of her. As soon as the Sicilian war vessel was 
out of sight he stepped on the quarter-deck in the full Sar- 
dinian naval uniform, and insisted that the vessel should be 
delivered over to him. 

" The audacious scheme was crowned with complete success, 
and amid the hurrahs of the crew, and the wild antics of the 



78 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CEXTURY. 

negro cook, who had lost his assistant, the ship's head was 
turned in the direction of Oueenstown." 

Settembrini stayed in London, giving lessons in Italian 
for a year. Then he joined his beloved family in Florence, 
till, in the fulness of time, Naples claimed admittance into 
the Italian fold. He was then charged by the Neapolitans 
with the mission of offering their crown to Victor Emmanuel, 
of whom in later days he used to say : — 

u Without a king who loyally guided the patriotic movement, 
Italian unity would never have been accomplished. It was use- 
less to speak of federation. Unity alone could have given us 
liberty and independence, because in unity alone a nation has 
consciousness of its strength." 

Settembrini retired into private life after the unity of 
Italy was accomplished, accepting, however, the post of 
Professor of Italian Literature in the L T niversity of Naples. 
His views on public matters were rather conservative than 
radical, and he was opposed to an extension of the suffrage 
among the ignorant. When old and broken in health he 
was appointed a Senator, and he made a last effort as a 
matter of duty to go to Rome, " to speak on what he con- 
sidered the most vital question affecting New Italy, — that 
of the excessive and crushing taxation. He saw how dan- 
gerous was the inclined plane on which Italy had stepped, 
how misleading the theory that, because she was now a 
great nation, she must spend in proportion with her great- 
ness and not with her means." 

Full of plans for his lectures, serene and gay to the last, 
he died quietly in his chair on November 3, 1877. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. 

A VENICE had been a Republic since the latter part of 
* the fifth century, and a proud, aggressive oligarchy 
for five hundred years, when Napoleon put an end to its 
republican existence in 1797. It had shone gloriously as a 
star among the nations, but by the time it met its fate it 
had deserved its downfall. 

Mourn not for Venice — though her fall 
Be awful, as if Ocean's wave 
Swept o'er her. She deserves it all, 
And Justice triumphs o'er her grave. 
Thus perish every king and state 
That runs the guilty race she ran, 
Strong but in fear, and only great 
In outrage against God and man. 

Napoleon gave Venice to the Austrians by the Treaty of 
Campo Formio, but during his subsequent wars he recovered 
it, and annexed it to Lombardy as part of his kingdom of 
Italy. While his power lasted, Venice was not badly gov- 
erned. It is true that she did not relish incorporation with 
Lombardy, and that her people felt the oppression of taxa- 
tion and conscription under the French system. 

By the Congress of Vienna, Venice was once more handed 
over, together with Lombardy, to Austria. The especial 
value of Venice to that country was its situation at the head 
of the Adriatic Sea. Venice and Trieste were Austria's 
sole outlets to the ocean. Venice became her great naval 
station. The arsenal, so vividly described by Dante, was 
invaluable to her navy, and of all her possessions the one 
she was most disposed to hold with a firm grasp was 



8o ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

St. Mark's city. Between Lombardy and Venetian terri- 
tory she had erected, or rather strengthened, four immense 
fortresses, which, in the eyes of military men, made her hold 
on Lombardy and Venetia almost secure. These fortresses 
— Mantua, Verona, Peschiera, and Legnago — formed what 
was called the Quadrilateral, and play no inconsiderable 
part in the history of Italy from 1S4S to 1867. 

In no part of Italy, not even in Milan itself, was the rule 
of the Austrians more detested than in Venice. Not even, 
in after years, could the rule of the gallant and gentle Arch- 
duke Maximilian reconcile Venetians to the loss of what 
they called their independence, though there had been little 
individual liberty under the rule of the Council of Ten. 

After the Treaty of Vienna had settled the boundaries of 
the states of Europe, Venice, held down firmly by an im- 
mense Austrian garrison, was very quiet for a good many 
years, but in 1844 the rash invasion of Calabria by the 
brothers Bandiera, who were of Venetian birth and of an 
old patrician family, moved the hearts of their countrymen 
to profound est sympathy. 

The last of the Doges was named Manin. In 1797, when 
Venice was handed over for a brief season to the Aus- 
trian Emperor, before Napoleon became King of Italy, he 
dropped fainting from emotion while attempting to pro- 
nounce the oath of allegiance to the house of Hapsburg, 
and in a few hours he died. During his dogeship a leading 
Jew in Venice had been converted to Christianity, and ac- 
cording to custom, had, on being baptized, taken the sur- 
name of his sponsor. The son of this Jew was christened 
Daniele, and he went by the surname of Manin. He had 
very delicate health, and was fair, with light hair and blue 
eyes. He was a lawyer by profession, and an exceedingly 
fine speaker. From his babyhood he had been brought up 
to hate the rule of Austria. In 1830 he drew up a paper 
exhorting the Venetians to join the revolt that was then 
preparing in Modena and Romagna. But this revolt sud- 
denly failed, and Manin's authorship of the dangerous 
document was not discovered. 



DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. 8 1 

He then devoted himself to social and commercial re- 
forms. A railroad was projected between Venice and 
Milan. The Viceroy of Lombardy wanted it to take a route 
that would be of advantage to the Austrian military position in 
the Quadrilateral ; the Italian bankers, who were to advance 
the funds, wanted it to take another line. Manin was ap- 
pointed their advocate to oppose the Austrian governor. 
The affair ended in the company being dissolved, and the 
railroad was not made for many years. 

In 1846, Mr. Cobden, the English apostle of free trade, 
visited Italy, and the great men who were afterwards lead- 
ing Italian statesmen took his cause up warmly, — in Genoa, 
D'Azeglio ; in Bologna, Minghetti ; in Turin, Cavour ; and 
in Venice, Manin and his friend Tommaseo. 

In January, 1848, a month before the overthrow of Louis 
Philippe, both Manin and Tommaseo, who had pleaded for 
reforms, were arrested for high treason. This led to Vene- 
tian demonstrations of hatred against Austria. Two months 
later, the French revolution having been accomplished, half 
Europe being agitated by political excitement, and Vienna 
itself in revolt against its Emperor, the Venetian populace 
assembled under the windows of Count Palffy, the Austrian 
governor, and demanded the release of Tommaseo and 
Manin. The governor, after some resistance, yielded, say- 
ing at the same time : " I do what I ought not to do." 
The people, in a tumultuous crowd, rushed over the Bridge 
of Sighs ; they burst open the door of Manin's prison, but 
he refused to come out till he had seen the warrant for his 
release. This was produced, and then, in his prison gar- 
ments, borne on the shoulders of the crowd, he was carried 
to the glorious Piazza of St. Mark, where — no one ever 
knew by whom — the red, white, and green colors of Italy 
had been hoisted on those historic pillars, where for long 
years the yellow and black colors of Austria had waved. 

11 1 know not yet," said Manin, addressing the crowd around 
him, " to what events I owe my liberation, but I can see that 
love of country and national spirit have made great strides since 
I went into prison. But forget not," he added, " that there is 

6 



82 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

no true or lasting freedom without order : and of order you must 
make yourselves the jealous guardians. Yet there are times 
pointed out by the finger of Providence when insurrection is not 
only a right but a duty." 

In three or four days news came that all Lombardy was 
in a blaze. About three thousand Venetians assembled 
armed. " Let even- one who will not implicitly obey me. 
depart." said Manin. The Austrian governor, Count Palfly 3 
who was not personally unpopular, endeavored to appease 
the multitude by telling them that a Constitution was to be 
granted to Venice, and that nothing would please him better 
than to be their first constitutional governor. But the peo- 
ple had gone beyond a desire for reforms; they demanded 
the expulsion of their foreign masters. Count Zichy, the 
Austrian general, had to withdraw his troops, and Count 
PalrTy was constrained to deliver up his powers into the 
people's hands. These officers were both loyal gentlemen, 
but they were Hungarians by birth, and doubtless felt more 
sympathy with the revolted Venetians than would have been 
the case had they been of Austrian blood. 

How Manin seized the celebrated Arsenal by surprise, 
how he drew to light the grand old banner of St. Mark, 
and, marching with it in triumph to the great Square, pro- 
claimed the Republic of Venice, I have not space to tell, 
though it is a picturesque and stirring story, — with a ten- 
der sadness in it too, when we read of Emilia, Manin's 
little girl, looking with te#rs in her eyes at her father in his 
triumph, because her heart prophesied that his ruin would 
soon come. 

Bit by bit the Austrian authority* was yielded to the new 
Dictator. The Austrian garrison was sent away from Venice, 
bound not to serve again during the war. but when all this 
was accomplished Manin's strength failed. For five days 
he had suffered physical torture, and when his followers 
would have again carried him in triumph, he exclaimed in 
his anguish, " Leave me at least this night to rest, or I shall 
die." 

Meantime, the great Austrian general, Radetzky, an old 



DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. 83 

man and a consummate soldier, had been forced (March, 
iS48),after five days of tumult, to withdraw his garrison of 
fifteen thousand men from Milan, the capital of Lombardy. 
Pio Nono was still believed to be a patriot. Roman troops, 
bearing the tricolor flag of Italy, had publicly received his 
blessing, and were marching on the Po. The Duke of 
Modena and the Duchess of Parma had fled into Austrian 
territory, and even Ferdinand of Naples found himself 
forced to allow his army, under General Pepe, reinforced 
by patriotic volunteers, to approach the seat of war. 

There were three parties among the Italian patriots. One 
believed that Italian independence could not be achieved 
without the help of some powerful foreign ally, — probably 
France, on whom the hopes of Italy were set until French 
troops landed to support the Pope at Civita Vecchia. An- 
other, with Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, at its head, 
took for its motto, Italia fara da se, — that is, Italy will 
manage for herself. The third was the republican party, of 
which Mazzini was the chief, which wished a confederation 
of Italian republics. To this party seems to have belonged 
Manin. Nevertheless he, in the end, accepted the proposal 
to unite Venice to the dominions of Charles Albert, saying 
that the first thing to be considered was the expulsion of 
the Austrians ; and that forms of government could be 
considered when Austria's power in Italy was destroyed. 
Accordingly, in June, 1848, it was resolved by an assembly, 
elected by universal suffrage, and convened by Manin in 
Venice (the terra firma Venetia was in the hands of the 
Austrians), that the newly- formed Republic should acknowl- 
edge Charles Albert as its leader, and constitutional King. 
But in a few weeks the tide of war had turned, and Charles 
Albert had been forced to sign an armistice, one of the 
stipulations in which was the renunciation of Venice. 

When this news reached the city," says the Countess Cesa- 
resco, "Venice was plunged in a ferment of sinister agitation. 
Excited crowds rushed about the city clamoring for Manin, and 
crying ' Down with the royal government!' They threatened 
Charles Albert's commissioners with violence, and it was only 



84 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

when Manin declared that he would stake his life upon their hon- 
esty and patriotism, that the crowds became more calm, and 
acceded to his request to wait patiently while he held a con- 
sultation as to what was to be done. . . . The consultation over, 
Manin went out to the people, and told them how things stood. 
' The day after to-morrow,' he said, ' The assembly of the city 
and province of Venice will meet to appoint a new govern- 
ment. For these forty-eight hours I govern ! ' His hearers 
were electrified with joy." 

When the Assembly met, its wish, together with that of 
the populace, was to make Manin Dictator. He objected 
that he had no military training or experience. A trium- 
virate was therefore formed, of which he was the head. 

Now Venice had to prepare for a siege. A small part of 
the Neapolitan troops under General Pepe, had, as has been 
said, refused to obey the orders of King Ferdinand to re- 
turn home and assist in putting down the rebellion in Sicily. 
They threw themselves into Venice, and strengthened its 
garrison. The Roman volunteers, under their leader, Gen- 
eral Durando, had crossed the Po in spite of orders, and 
soon after had been cut to pieces by the Austrians. 

The details of the siege of Venice, which lasted from 
August, 1848, to August, 1849, need not here be told; 
the particulars of military operations are rarely interesting 
to the general reader, who looks only to their results. But 
I think I may add a very touching episode of the war in 
those days. 

My sister, living in Venice, sent me the documents con- 
cerning it some years ago, saying that she thought I might 
make some literary use of them ; but having afterwards men- 
tioned the story to Mr. Browning, he seemed to her so de- 
sirous to make a poem on the subject himself, that she 
wrote to me to return the papers for his use, which, of 
course, I did, being unwilling that the unfortunate hero 
should lose the immortality which a poem by Mr. Browning 
would have conferred on him. I copied the documents, 
however, before parting with them, and, as Mr. Browning 
never accomplished his wish of writing a poem on the sub- 
ject, I here add a translation of the papers. 




GENERAL PEPE. 



DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. 85 

" The holy reverence in my heart," says the Venetian narra- 
tor, " concerning the glory and honor of my country, impels me 
to recount a most unhappy episode in its history. It is a story 
that might well move every heart, — even the least emotional, — 
to pity. It happened in Venice, May 30, 1849, toward the 
close of the celebrated siege. 

" The heroic enterprise of the principal actor in the story, 
which might well serve to illustrate one of the grandest pages in 
the annals of a generous people, was marred not only by cruel 
Fate, but by men still living, who have paid their debt of grati- 
tude to the hero's memory by forgetting him and his exploit 
altogether. This oblivion has gone so far that he almost rests 
under a false, dishonorable suspicion, — a stain which history 
should make speed to wipe away. Let us, therefore, with the 
pride of true Italians, rehabilitate our hero's memory. 

" After the heroic defence of the fort of Malghera, the gov- 
ernment of the Republic, convinced that outside resistance 
would be useless, decreed that the position should be aban- 
doned, ordered the withdrawal of the troops, and continued the 
defence of Venice on the second line. 

" The piazzale in the middle of the great bridge over the 
lagoon had been the central point of our fortifications, and, with 
the little islands to its right and left, formed the front of our 
line of defence facing the enemy, while at San Giuliano and at 
Malghera after its evacuation, and all along the shores of the 
lagoon on terra jirma, the enemy continued to construct new 
batteries to bear upon our second line of defence, and on the 
city. 

"During the terrible siege and bombardment of Malghera, 
the officer in command of our troops conceived the idea of 
destroying that part of the bridge that was contiguous to one of 
the islands, considering it perilous to our defences. But Vene- 
tian officers at that period were not unanimous, and the opinion 
of Colonel Milani, of the engineers, which was unfavorable to 
the proposed destruction of the bridge, or rather of its fortifica- 
tion, prevailed. 

" However, as soon as Malghera was evacuated, the destruc- 
tion of that part of the bridge became an absolute necessity. 
A corps of sappers and miners were at once ordered to set to 
work to blow it up by means of mines already prepared. 

" On the morning of May 22 the mines were sprung, but the 
explosion did not produce the effect anticipated. General 
Girolamo Ulloa therefore set to work to consider the best mode 
of repairing the mines, so as to succeed in destroying several 



$6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

arches which had only been partially shattered by the explosion. 
Before anything could be done, it was desirable to ascertain 
the precise condition of the mines that had not exploded, and 
the amount of ruin effected on the arches, also what quantity of 
material it would be necessary to transport, and that promptly. 

"The immense peril of accomplishing this investigation 
under the hot fire of the Austrian cannon and musketry, the 
former of which might at any moment send the bridge and those 
examining it into the air, daunted even the boldest and most 
noble-hearted among the defenders of Venice. It was. however, 
essential that a man brave and intelligent should undertake the 
enterprise. 

" When the general in command had decided on the neces- 
sity of a forlorn hope, a young patriot at once volunteered. He 
was a mason, Agostino Stefani, from Budoia, near Sacile, and 
was accepted with high praise by General Girolamo Ulloa, 
after he had explained to that general the heroic project he had 
conceived. 

"In company with another volunteer, Stefani went forth on 
his hazardous undertaking. Having received their instructions, 
they embarked on a small boat, and rowed toward the shattered 
arches. They had taken every precaution to escape the Aus- 
trians' vigilance, and they safely reached their destination. 
There they set to work carefully to observe everything. But 
in their enthusiasm having leaped upon the debris of the shat- 
tered bridge, they were observed, and drew upon themselves the 
fire of the enemy, who, anxious to hinder their work, did their 
best to kill them. 

" With great regret they were forced to abandon their task, 
and under a terrible fire they rowed back to the shore. 

" But Agostino Stefani, regardless of peril to himself, and full 
of warm affection for his country, conceived the idea of alone 
attempting the enterprise which the enemies of Italy had forced 
him to abandon. 

" With this generous purpose he set to work to obtain from 
the authorities a fresh permission. It was granted to him this 
time, by Colonel Enrico Cosenz, subsequently a general, but 
then the officer in charge of the second line of the Venetian 
defences. 1 He believed that the heroic self-devotion of this 
brave man, who risked his life for the salvation of his beloved 

1 He was a Sicilian by birth, and subsequently a distinguished 
officer among the Red Shirts, with whom Garibaldi invaded the 
Two Sicilies. 



DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. Sj 

country, could not remain without results, and he authorized 
him to make the attempt over again. 

" Agostino, therefore, stepped into his boat and rowed out 
very slowly. Bold, calm, and undaunted, he reached the ruined 
arches of the bridge. With one bound he was up on the struc- 
ture the arches of which had been imperfectly destroyed, and 
although he was again perceived by the Austrians, who directed 
against him a more furious fire than before, he did not desist, 
but imperturbably fulfilled the duty for which he had volun- 
teered, — happy and proud that he could risk his life in aid of 
his country and his besieged fellow-citizens. 

" But a great and unexpected misfortune awaited him. He 
had accomplished his heroic mission, and, returning joyfully to 
his boat, which so far had escaped injury from the fire of the 
Austrians, he began to row towards Venice. 

" Suddenly a shot shivered one of the planks of his boat, and 
it sank under him. He fell into the water, but his courage did 
not desert him, and he endeavored to swim toward Venice, 
whence he had come. 

" Unhappily the set of the current was against him ; and the 
long distance exhausted his strength so much that he gave 
signs of perishing. . . . 

" Meantime, a small reconnoitring party of Venetians, who 
were patrolling the banks of the lagoon, had been aware for 
some time that a man was at work alone by himself upon the 
bridge and its ruined arches. With prompt suspicion they 
imagined him to be an enemy, and continued carefully to 
observe his actions. They now waited for him to come ashore 
at a point not far from the outposts of the Austrians. 

" Seeing him, however, about to sink, they went out to him in 
their boat, and took him out of the water. They marched him 
to the Battery Pio Nino, where at that moment General Giro- 
lamo Ulloa chanced to be. There they informed this officer 
that, having seen this man making his way toward the Austrian 
outposts, they had pursued him, picked him up, and arrested 
him. 

" It was only proper to inquire into these circumstances, 
great caution at such times being necessary. The general, 
therefore, ordered that Stefani should be sent forthwith to the 
vigilance committee, guarded by a sufficient escort, on the boat 
of two brothers who were scouts, named Zanini. 

" As the boat put off from the Battery Pio Nono, a rumor 
most unhappily got about that the prisoner was a traitor and a 
spy. A party of roughs gathered on the bank, beside them- 



88 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

selves with cruel thoughts of vengeance, and began at once to 
stone the unfortunate Agostino. 

" The Zanini and the escort seeing their own danger, and 
fearing that the vengeance of the mob might fall upon them- 
selves, flung their prisoner overboard. 

"In vain Agostino tried several times to get back into the 
boat; he was every time beaten off with oars, besides being 
struck down with stones hurled against him by a furious crowd 
on the bank of the lagoon. Thus assailed, the unhappy man 
sank dead under his sufferings, and life was hardly extinct 
when Colonel Enrico Cosenz, commander of the inner line of 
defence, arrived in haste. He had given the permit to Agos- 
tino, and had been watching his movements on the bridge. 
Perceiving that something had gone wrong, he hurried to the 
place where the tragedy had been enacted, and learned with 
horror the barbarous fate that had befallen his young hero." 

The fortress of Malghera had held out during twenty- 
three days of incessant bombardment, Haynau and his 
army of twenty-five thousand men having concentrated 
their attack on this position. One-fifth of the garrison of 
the fort had been killed or disabled. When the place 
was no longer tenable it was so quietly evacuated during 
the night of May 29, that the Austrians knew nothing of the 
retreat of the garrison till the morning. It was deep sor- 
row to the remainder of these gallant men to leave the 
place they had defended. The gunners with tears kissed 
their guns before they spiked them. Happily Haynau was 
not there to take possession of the ruined fortress. He 
had been ordered to Hungary, where he put the last 
touches to his reputation for brutality. The ruins of 
Malghera fell into the hands of Count Thurn, an Austrian 
general who could appreciate the bravery of its defence, 
and made no secret of his profound admiration of the way 
in which it had been conducted. 

As the siege of Venice went on, money was needed, and 
all kinds of sacrifices were made by the inhabitants. 
Ladies brought their jewels to the treasury, gondoliers' 
wives their silver hairpins. Twelve thousand soldiers were 
clothed by private subscription, two citizens giving one 



DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. 89 

hundred thousand lire ($20,000) apiece. One young 
marquis presented his palazzo. General Pepe gave his 
dearest possession — a picture by Leonardo da Vinci. 
Manin sent in all his silver, two dishes, two coffee-pots, and 
a dozen forks and spoons. Little children came with their 
toys, or went dinnerless that they might bring their mite. 
The very convicts made up a purse for their country. But 
it was all in vain. 

Manin was the idol of the people, and was called by them 
the Star of Italy. Once when they thought he was being 
ill-treated by other members of the government, a roaring 
mob surrounded the assembly, and threatened to burst in 
the doors. Manin, sword in hand, with his son Giorgio at 
his side, stood in the doorway, and told the rioters that if 
they intended to disgrace their Venice thus, they must pass 
over his and his son's dead bodies. 

Early in March, 1849, when things had grown very 
desperate, Manin was made Dictator. Cholera and hunger 
were in the city, — the Austrian host without. On accept- 
ing the position — refused by all others — Manin told his 
countrymen that if the civic guard had no longer confidence 
in his loyalty he should lay the burthen down : " I ask 
frankly, has the civic guard faith in me?" he cried. The 
whole Piazza resounded with a thundering " Sil " "Then," 
continued Manin, " come what may, say of me ' This man 
was misled,' but never, ' This man misled others.' I have 
deceived no man. I have never spread illusions which 
were not mine own. I never said I hoped when I had no 
hope." 

After Manin was made Dictator the war-cloud seemed to 
lighten for a moment. Charles Albert again took the field — 
and then he was defeated at the battle of Novara ! 

In July, 1849, tne Austrians, who had hitherto bombarded, 
only forts, began to throw bombs into the city, the cholera 
increased, and hunger, after twelve long months of siege, 
quenched the courage of the Venetians. Resistance became 
hopeless. A capitulation was signed, August 24, 1849. 
"A more honorable capitulation," wrote General Pepe, 



90 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

u could not have been obtained if Venice had had remaining 
in her gunpowder and provisions for a whole year, instead 
of only for one day." 

Forty leading citizens, together with all officers who had 
served in the Austrian army, were required to leave the 
city. Manin, of course, was one of the forty exiles. At 
midnight, he, his wife, son, and little Emilia went on board 
the French steamer " Pluton," which carried them away, 
all but one, into lifelong exile. Manin was penniless. 
Some friends had pressed on him a little money, but he 
shared it with exiles still poorer than himself. His wife 
died of cholera on board the " Pluton," and with his two 
motherless children, one of them very ill, he made his way 
to Paris. There, great man as he had been, he had to 
support himself by giving Italian lessons, while day by day 
his Emilia faded before his eyes. But it was not till 1854 
that she died. Her last words were : " My darling Venice ! 
I shall never see you again." 

Her father survived her three years. In those later 
years he became more and more convinced that the best 
government for a United Italy would be a popular king. It 
rejoiced his heart to see the Italian colors blended with the 
French and English flags in all demonstrations of rejoicing 
over the success of the Crimean War. 

He died in 1857, at the age of fifty-three. Had he 
lived nine years longer he would have witnessed the inde- 
pendence of a United Italy. 

Two days after Manin quitted Venice, Marshal Radetzky, 
the commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces in Italy, 
entered the city, amid " the silence of a bewildered popula- 
tion," says an Austrian eye-witness ; and for seventeen 
years the same silence and bewilderment continued. 

On Thursday, July 5, 1866, the Austrian colors were 
hauled down from their great flagstaffs before the Palace 
of Saint Mark, and on October 18 the colors of the king- 
dom of Italy were hoisted in their stead. 

Manin, his wife, and child had been buried in Ary 
Scheffer's tomb at Montmartre, but after the liberation of 



DANIEL MANIN AND HIS CITY. 9 1 

Venice their remains were carried back to their dear native 
city, and rest together in an elaborate sarcophagus. A 
statue was erected to Manin opposite his former house in 
Venice. He is represented in the act of addressing his 
fellow-citizens, and the Lion of Saint Mark is nestling at 
his feet. 1 

1 This chapter of my history was written some years ago, probably 
before the Countess Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco wrote her inter- 
esting and pathetic book, " Italian Characters," — certainly before its 
publication. But on reading and consulting that book recently, I 
found, to my surprise, that what its author had written of Manin and 
what I had written were almost identical. In recopying my narrative 
I have left it as I had written it, adding only a few passages, that I 
have marked as quotations from the book of the Countess. I can 
only account for this similarity between my chapter and a book I had 
never seen, by supposing that the Countess and I worked from the 
same material. Such a coincidence is not foreign to my experience, 
having occurred once before in my literary life. In 18S2 I published 
anonymously a No Name novel, — a story called " My Wife and 
my Wife's Sister." It turned on the history of an adventurer and 
criminal, Pierre Coignard, who was tried and convicted of crime and 
fraud in Paris in 1S18. His story made much noise at the time, and, 
in describing the scenes at his trial, I worked as closely as possible 
to contemporary and official reports. Shortly after the book was 
published, a distinguished literary man pointed out to Messrs. Roberts 
that at least twenty pages of the book were a bold plagiarism from a 
story, " Dans la Peau d'un Autre," by Gaboriau. I had never heard 
of " La Peau d'un Autre." I had read only one short story by 
Gaboriau. We had worked from the same material, making the 
trial of Pierre Coignard adhere as nearly to the truth as possible. 
My only regret was that my saintly heroine Angelique should have 
figured as a tigerish adulteress in Gaboriau's story. 



CHAPTER V. 

CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN LTALY. 

CHARLES ALBERT, Prince of Savoy- Carignan, who,, as 
^ we have seen, represented the House of Savoy in the 
male line on the death of his remote cousin, King Charles 
Felix of Sardinia, was the son of Charles Emmanuel, Prince 
of Savoy-Carignan and of a lady described variously in 
genealogical tables as a princess of Courland, or as a prin- 
cess of Saxony. She was indeed Christina, daughter of 
Charles, Prince of Courland, and Countess Francoise Kra- 
zinska, a lady of good family in Poland. Very lately a 
charming little book, the " Journal " of this lady has been 
published in this country. Prince Charles of Courland was 
at the time of his secret marriage to Frangoise Krazinska, 
heir expectant of the Polish throne. He did not obtain it, 
however, but with his wife — his marriage was then acknowl- 
edged — went into exile in Saxony, where Charles Emman- 
uel courted their daughter and married her. Charles 
Emmanuel was the only Prince of the house of Savoy who 
made any concessions to the French when they took pos- 
session of Savoy. In return they gave him a pension, and 
he lived for a few years near Paris ; he then died, leaving 
his only son, Charles Albert, to the care of a wilful mother, 
who had adopted revolutionary ideas of liberty and equality. 
She is said at one time to have appeared in the streets of 
Turin dressed in the extreme of revolutionary fashion, with 
her young son in her arms. After Charles Emmanuel's death 
she married a French husband, M. de Montleart. and it 
is said that both she and this gentleman showed little inter- 
est in the training of the child. His education was for the 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN ITALY. 93 

most part very irregular, though occasionally his mother 
tried on him experiments adopted from the educational 
theories of Rousseau. Unhappy, neglected, and estranged 
from the mother whom he could not love, the boy grew up 
sad and silent, an object of dislike and distrust to at least 
one of his royal cousins, Charles Felix. He had been 
instructed to call these distant kinsmen "uncles," but Charles 
Felix never spoke of him but as " that little vagabond." 

Mr. Godkin, in his life of Victor Emmanuel, says, how- 
ever : — 

" Charies Albert spent some time at a military school in 
Paris, and at the age of sixteen was made by Napoleon a 
lieutenant of dragoons. His education was completed at 
(ieneva, under the direction of a very able Protestant divine. 
For all his liberal education, Charles Albert was as devout a 
Catholic as any of his predecessors. His nature was profoundly 
religious, and his faith was firmly, indissolubly fixed in the 
Catholic Church. His political principles were liberal, just, 
generous, his love of his country sincere. The conflicting 
elements of love of country and love of the Church warring in 
bis soul, made him melancholy, reserved, incomprehensible, 
incomplete." 

Strange to say, the only person who seemed to bestow 
much thought or consideration on the presumptive heir of 
Piedmont was Prince Metternich. He concocted a scheme 
by which the eldest of King Victor Emmanuel's four 
daughters should marry her uncle, Francis of Modena, who, 
having been deprived of his intended bride, Maria Louisa, 
by her marriage with Napoleon, had remained a bachelor. 
The Salic law in Piedmont, when the time came, was to be 
set aside in favor of this lady and her husband, and thus 
Austrian influence over all Northern Italy would be com- 
plete. The Duke of Modena imprudently let out the secret 
of this scheme at the Congress of Vienna, when Prince 
Talleyrand, alarmed at the preponderance it would give to 
Austria in Italy, and looking upon Piedmont and Savoy as 
buffer States between France and Austrian Italy, opposed 
the scheme, and the rights of Charles Albert were formally 
recognized. 



94 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

The young Prince was invited to visit the camp of the 
allies, an invitation that his kinsman. Charles Felix, although 
he detested and mistrusted the lad, characterized as a 
scheme designed to get the only male heir in any branch 
of the house of Savoy either debauched or killed. The 
young Prince was therefore called to the Court of Victor 
Emmanuel I., and definitely acknowledged as his uncle's 
heir. In due time he was married to the Archduchess 
Maria Theresa of Tuscany, at Florence, who, on March 14, 
1820, gave birth to a son, Victor Emmanuel, the future 
King of Italy. 

To learn what the condition of Italy was about this 
period, we might refer to the letters of Prince Metternich 
himself, a statesman of great general information and 
sagacity, but we may better quote, perhaps, M. de 
Chateaubriand, as an unprejudiced authority. 

" It is not.'' he says. " some poor devils of Carbonari, excited 
by the actions of the police, and hung without mercy, who will 
revolutionize the country. The most false reports of the true 
state of things reach the ears of the governments. They are 
prevented from doing what they ought to do for their own saf ety 
by being led to believe that all discontent arises from the con- 
spiracies of a handful of Jacobins, whereas it is the effect of a 
permanent and general cause. Such is the real position of 
Italy. Every one of the states, over and above the general 
dissatisfaction which fills all minds, has some cause of discon- 
tent peculiarly its own. Piedmont is delivered up to a fanatical 
faction, the Jesuits : the Milanese territory is devoured by the 
Austrians : the dominions of the Pope are ruined by bad admin- 
istration : at Naples the weakness of the government is onlv 
saved by the cowardice of the people. The antipathies created 
by territorial divisions add further to the difficulties of an in- 
ternal movement. But if some impulse came from without, or 
if some Prince on the Italian side of the Alps gave a Constitu- 
tion to his subjects, a revolution would take place, for everything 
is ripe for revolution. " 

Victor Emmanuel I.. King of Sardinia and Piedmont, 
and Duke of Savoy, found himself in 18 14 in possession of 
all the former dominions of his family, together with the 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN LTALY. 95 

important city of Genoa and its dependencies, which, much 
against the will of its inhabitants, had been also given him. 

On March 10, 182 1, eight years before Chateaubriand 
wrote the passage I have quoted, a revolutionary rising 
took place in Alessandria, a strongly fortified position on 
the frontier of Piedmont adjoining Austrian Lombardy. 
The cry was raised of " King and Constitution," coupled 
with " Down with the Austrians ! " At once the spark 
kindled a flame in Turin and Genoa. The King came in 
haste to his capital, bringing with him Prince Charles 
Albert. Arrived at Turin, he assembled a council. A 
soothing proclamation was issued, which, however, had no 
effect. The revolutionists still demanded a Constitution. 
At that very moment came news from the congress of the 
emperors at Laybach, that the Holy Alliance would not 
suffer any fresh " liberty " in Spain or Italy, and that if any 
people succeeded in extorting a Constitution from its 
sovereign, its country would be invaded by the Powers, who 
had guaranteed that there should be no change in the 
condition of things established by the Congress of Vienna. 

This put an end to the Constitution sworn to by King 
Ferdinand of Naples, and appalled Victor Emmanuel, King 
of Piedmont and Savoy. 

Meantime, the flag of Italy had been hoisted on the 
citadel of Turin, and had been hailed with enthusiasm by 
the inhabitants. Charles Albert, whose associations had 
been with young men accounted Liberals, with whose 
aspirations he was believed to sympathize, was sent, in the 
King's name, to demand the surrender of the fortress. He 
received in reply : " Our hearts are faithful to the King, 
but we wish to deliver him from perfidious counsels. War 
with Austria, a Constitution like that just granted in Spain, 
are the wishes of his people." 

Perhaps had the Revolutionists known more about the 
Constitution "just granted in Spain," they would not have 
found its adaptation to Piedmont so satisfactory. It set 
aside the Salic law, and would have made the Duchess of 
Modena and her detested husband heirs of the reigning 



Q6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

king, to the exclusion of his brother, Charles Felix, and 
Charles Albert, the young Prince of Savoy- Carignan. 

In his perplexity, King Victor Emmanuel called together 
his military chiefs, and asked them to tell him the state of 
feeling in the army. All answered for the fidelity of their 
soldiers to the person of the King, but they declined to 
answer for them further. 

After three days of vacillation, the kindly old King ab- 
dicated. He had refused to let such troops as were faithful 
to him fire on his subjects. He took leave of his people, 
appointing Charles Albert regent until the arrival of Charles 
Felix, the new sovereign. The Queen had desired to be 
regent, and was greatly disappointed. At the Congress of 
Vienna, Victor Emmanuel had pledged himself to the Allied 
Powers never to grant a Constitution to his people, and 
seeing that they would not be satisfied without one, he thus 
endeavored to escape responsibility. 

He retired to Nice after his abdication, and Charles 
Albert was left for a few days to hold the reins of govern- 
ment. Those few days, however, sufficed to give the 
Piedmontese their earnestly desired Constitution. 

The ministry of the late king counselled the regent to 
proclaim at once the Spanish Constitution. He hesitated, 
— but he did so. His proclamation ran thus : — 

" In this most difficult moment it is not possible merely to 
consider what it is usually within the province of a regent to 
perform. Our respect and submission to His Majesty Charles 
Felix, upon whom the throne has devolved, would have coun- 
selled us to abstain from making any change in the fundamen- 
tal laws of the kingdom, and would have led us to wait, so that 
we might know the intentions of the new King. But the impe- 
rious necessity of the circumstances being clearly manifest, and 
it being equally behoving on us to hand over to His Majesty his 
people in safety and happiness, and not torn in pieces by fac- 
tions and civil war, we have determined, having well considered 
all the circumstances, acting in harmony with our council, and 
hoping that the King, moved by the same considerations, will 
invest this our decision with his sovereign approval, that the 
Constitution of Spain be promulgated, and observed as the law 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN LTALY. 97 

of the State, with such modifications as shall, by the National 
Representation, in concert with His Majesty the King, be deter- 
mined on." 

His Majesty the King, who was then staying with his 
kinsfolk in Modena, was furious at this action of the Regent, 
— a young man whom he hated, distrusted, and despised. 
He repudiated at once all idea of granting a Constitution 
to his kingdom, and ordered Charles Albert to repair to 
Novara, bringing with him all the troops he could collect. 
" I shall see," he said, "by the promptitude of your obe- 
dience, whether you are still a prince of the house of Savoy, 
or whether you have ceased to be one of them." 

Charles Albert obeyed the King, and, with a few troops 
in his train, went submissively to Novara, that spot on which 
in his despair and anguish he did his best to court a soldier's 
death in after years. For five months, Charles Felix would 
not enter his capital. By the time he did so, constitution- 
alism had been put down, and Austrian troops had been 
summoned to support his authority. 

When Charles Albert presented himself to his kinsman at 
Modena, Charles Felix refused to see him, but ordered him 
at once into exile at Florence, where ruled the brother of 
his wife, the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany. He also 
favored a scheme for setting aside the claims of Charles 
Albert to the succession. But this was opposed by Louis 
XVIII., who held his crown by right of legitimacy, and by 
the Emperor of Russia. Finally in 1825 the matter was 
settled, when Charles Albert signed a paper pledging him- 
self to make no alterations in the government of his king- 
dom, when he should receive it, at the death of the reigning 
king. 

In the late "International Review," appeared in 1880 a 
paper signed Luigi Monti, giving so graphic an account of 
the arrival of Charles Albert at Florence in disgrace and 
exile, that I cannot do better than insert it here. 

"On a cold, dreary morning in the winter of 1822, several 
travelling carriages, escorted by dragoons, entered the city of 
Florence, and, through the Boboli gardens, came to the private 

7 



98 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

entrance to the Pitti Palace. From the first one there alighted 
a tall, thin, stiff young man of military air, and of distinguished 
appearance, but with a sad, severe, thoughtful countenance. He 
helped from the carriage a handsome blonde lady, who, though 
speaking with the purest Tuscan accent, yet revealed bv her com- 
plexion and features her Teutonic descent. On the landing at 
the top of the short stairway, stood the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 
with his family and household, to receive the new-comers. But 
before the lady would ascend the few steps, she waited for the 
next carriage to draw up ; then taking from the arms of a nurse 
a child not quite two years old, she walked hastily up the steps, 
and with deep emotion rushed into the outstretched arms of the 
Grand Duke, who embraced her tenderly. 

" The aristocratic, sober man was Charles Albert, Prince of 
Carignano, the lady was his wife, Maria Teresa of Austria, 
daughter of the Grand Duke ; the child was Victor Emmanuel 
of Savoy, the future King of Italy. But why were they thus 
escorted by dragoons, who seemed to prevent intercourse with 
the people, while serving as a guard of honor ? Why were they 
so privately received ? Why did the Grand Duke, who greeted 
the Princess so warmly, scarcely notice the Prince, her husband, 
who followed her into the apartments, like an attendant, and 
then left her, bowing with glacial politeness, as if he were a 
family culprit ? Why, after a few weeks of almost secluded 
residence, and the birth of another child, did he leave his family 
in Florence, and go to Spain, there to serve in the army of the 
Spanish king against the Constitutionalists ? 

" Prince Charles Albert of Carignano, of the younger branch 
of the house of Savoy, was the presumptive heir to the kingdom 
of Sardinia by the failure of male heirs in the elder branch, — a 
most extraordinary case, and almost a providential one. His 
training had been wholly military and religious. On the failure 
of all hopes of heirs in the elder branch in 1815, at the age of 
seventeen he had been married to Maria Teresa of Austria, 
daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Neglected at Court, 
he had sought solace in books of history and chivalry, and in 
the society of men of liberal ideas. His youthful fancy led to 
visions of Italian independence. He joined that division of the 
Carbonari whose aim was a federation of Italian States with 
constitutional governments, and he looked forward to the day 
when he could openly work for the cause of Italy. He took for 
his motto, — though in secret, — J' attends mon astre. Un- 
happy man! The star flashed several times on the horizon of 
his career, but it was destined never to rise and shine forth, ex- 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN LTALY. 99 

cept over the head of the child whom we have just seen held in 
his mother's arms on the palace stairs." 

Charles Albert had continued, even after his marriage, to 
be a continual object of anxiety to Prince Metternich, who 
kept close watch upon him. He had never taken oaths to 
the Carbonari, as Louis Napoleon and his brother had done, 
but his intimates were not only men who held the opinions 
adopted by that order, but members of the order itself; and 
when Austria in 1822 and 1823 entered on a persecution of 
all the men of learning, influence, and especial probity, who 
were, or were suspected of being,Carbonari, Prince Metternich 
was extremely anxious to fasten the accusation of belonging 
to that society on the young Prince of Carignano. To this 
end, when Count Confalonieri, head of the society, had 
been sentenced to death, and had his sentence commuted 
to imprisonment for life at Spielberg, he was amazed, on 
reaching Vienna, on his way to that fortress, to find himself 
conducted to a luxurious apartment, where every comfort 
was provided for him, marred only by his chains. There 
Prince Metternich in person visited him, and, by every 
promise, cajolery, and threat that he could think of, en- 
deavored to extort some of the secrets that concerned the 
Carbonari, — above all, Was the Prince of Carignano in any 
way associated with that order? 

Needless to say, Prince Metternich extracted nothing, and 
Confalonieri went on his way to the same captivity as Silvio 
Pellico. 

" Charles Albert, though a prince of the blood, was made to 
atone for his defection from Court absolutism by serving against 
the Constitutionalists in Spain, thus discrediting himself forever, 
it was hoped, with Italians of liberal opinions. He fought 
bravely, for he came of a martial race, and when the spirit of 
battle was upon him, he distinguished himself by his bravery 
at the taking of the Trocadero. But when he returned from 
Spain, despair seemed to have settled on his sad, severe counte- 
nance, which seldom changed, or smiled. He was a sad, silent 
man, suspected by the Liberals, who accused him of deserting 
their cause, suspected by the Austrians, and by the other princes 
of Italy, for his liberal opinions." 



100 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CEXTCRY. 

Charles Felix reigned till 1830. In his youth he had 
earnestly desired to be a monk, but things had been ordered 
otherwise. During his reign Piedmont may be said to have 
been ruled by the Austrians and the Jesuits. The cry that 
a few years later arose against the latter throughout Europe, 
was loud and fierce in Piedmont, and often probably un- 
just in lands where their political influence was bitterly 
resented. 

Charles Albert, who came to the throne on his kinsman's 
death, was a mystery to all men. He gave no cause of 
complaint to the Austrians, he imprisoned followers of Maz- 
zini, he caused the self- exile of young Cavour. Silent and 
impassive, nothing seemed to interest him but the discipline 
of his army, the care of his finances, and the education of 
his sons. "Traitor" and "double traitor" he was called. 
No man knew what to make of him. 

The truth appears to be that Charles Albert, in very 
difficult circumstances, kept his own counsel, but his views 
were probably these : he did not want a federation of Ital- 
ian republics with a Liberal Pope at its head, but he did 
want Austria to be driven out of Italy, and a United Italy 
(Northern Italy at least) made into a kingdom, with himself 
as its constitutional king. For these things he bided his time, 
and opposed those patriots who dreamed of republics, or 
made untimely attempts at revolution. 

There were three very great men in his little kingdom, 
though two of them were not known beyond it up to the 
year 1848, — Count Camillo Cavour, General La Marmora, 
and the Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio. The latter was the 
author of a well known Italian romance called " Ettore 
Fieramosco." 

These men were all true patriots, but wise and statesman- 
like, opposed to rash enterprises, and to premature repub- 
licanism. Their motto was : " Let us first make Italians, 
and then make Italy." To this end they were all working 
to carry out material improvements, the construction of 
railroads, the regulation of commerce, the promotion of 
education, and so on. 




KING CHARLES ALBERT. 



CHARLES ALBERT AXD NORTHERN ITALY. IOI 

Count Camillo Cavour was the third son of a noble Pied- 
montese father. When hardly out of college he was suspected 
of political leanings that were too patriotic, and for ten 
years his family were glad to have him live out of Italy, 
principally in France and England, studying their systems, 
particularly agriculture, to which he devoted himself on his 
return home. In this his history is like that of his great 
rival, Prince Bismarck, and he was like him, too, in this, 
that at one period of his life he was very " wild." 

About 1846 he devoted himself to journalism in Turin, 
and thenceforth came forward as a politician. In 1834, 
when in disgrace at Court, he wrote to a friend that he 
hoped nevertheless some day to gratify all his ambitions, for 
in his dreams he saw himself Minister of Italy. Charles 
Albert seems to have had his eyes upon him, for, on some 
one asking him, " Why is not Cavour in the Cabinet? " he 
answered, " The time is not yet come for Cavour." 

D'Azeglio was a Constitutionalist, opposed to the wilder 
projects of Mazzini. His family was illustrious, and Charles 
Albert had been on terms of affectionate intimacy with them. 

In 1845 a change came over Italy. The enterprise of 
the brothers Bandiera, foolish and wasteful of life as it was, 
had stirred men's hearts. D'Azeglio, after a tour of inspec- 
tion in the Papal States and central Italy, in which he had 
held intercourse with all the chief Liberals and perceived a 
sure prospect of a general rising against Austria, came to 
Turin, and had several private interviews with Charles 
Albert. The austere King listened to all the faithful patriot 
confided to him without replying, till at the last moment 
D'Azeglio, as he was leaving him, said : " Sire, I am going 
back to central Italy, — what reply shall I there make to 
my friends?" The sad face of the King suddenly bright- 
ened, his eyes flashed, and, seizing D'Azeglio's hand, he 
whispered in a low tone, as if afraid he might be overheard, 
" Marquis, tell your friends that, when the hour comes, I will 
stake my crown, my life, and the lives of my sons for Italian 
independence ! " Then, as if terrified at having said so 
much, he hastily withdrew. 



102 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

In 1846, as we have seen, the hopes of Italy revived after 
the election of Pio Nono. February, 1848, was a month of 
great events throughout all Europe. On February 8, two 
weeks before the French Revolution overthrew Louis Phi- 
lippe, Charles Albert of his own motion offered his subjects 
a Constitution, or, as it was called a Statuto Foiidamentale, 
and changed the national colors from those of the house 
of Savoy to red, white, and green, the tricolor of Italy. 
In the same month Leopold of Tuscany gave his subjects 
a Constitution. 

Charles Albert, by first hoisting the Italian colors, placed 
himself at the head of the popular movement in Italy. He 
had fifty thousand trained soldiers in his army, and there 
were nearly one hundred thousand well-disciplined Italian 
soldiers in the ranks of the Austrians in Lombardy, all ready 
to desert at the first trumpet call. 

Charles Albert was brave, patriotic, and thoroughly in ear- 
nest. His frame was hardy, his habits abstemious, and his 
recreations were active and manly. He had seen war, but 
not in the way it would be supposed an Italian patriot would 
have done, for he had drawn his sword in Spain in favor of 
despotism. He was a splendid soldier, but no general; 
nor had he genius. He was hampered by the poverty of 
his people, — though he had carefully hoarded their finances, 
— by the strong clerical party which disapproved his patriot- 
ism, and by the distrust of the advanced Republicans, who, 
although they assisted him as soldiers, set themselves against 
him personally in every way. Besides this, we must remem- 
ber that before Italy could win her independence she had, 
besides the Austrians, who were enemies enough, six 
native princes to conciliate or overcome, — Ferdinand of 
Naples, Pio Nono of Rome, Leopold of Tuscany, Francis 
of Modena, the Duke of Parma, and the Duke of Lucca. 

Charles Albert was, in 1848, fifty years old. His wife 
was a pious, gentle lady, sister of the Duke of Tuscany, 
kinswoman consequently of the Emperor of Austria. They 
had two sons, Victor Emmanuel, and Ferdinand Albert 
Arnadeus, Duke of Genoa. These young men had had for 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN ITALY. 103 

their military preceptor Alfonso de La Marmora, who was 
subsequently the commander of the Sardinian army in the 
Crimean War. In one respect La Marmora was not a favorite 
with Charles Albert, being aggressively anti-clerical, whereas 
the King was, from his early training and family sympathies, 
greatly under the influence of the Jesuits, and the strongly 
clerical party. Though politically he went against them, he 
deeply suffered from it in his own mind. 

It was early in 1847 tnat Milan, the capital of Lombardy, 
began to make such patriotic demonstrations of hatred to 
the Austrians as were possible without incurring the inter- 
ference of the police. Milan society was gay and brilliant 
at that time, but if any Austrian officer or official was ad- 
mitted to a ball at the house of a Milanese nobleman, his 
host knew well that he would have to retire to his country 
seat, as none of his friends in Milan would continue to visit 
him. 

There was an obsolete by-law in Milan that smoking was 
not allowed in the streets. Every patriot gave up smoking 
(and a terrible sacrifice it must have been to him) because 
a large part of the Austrian revenue was derived from a 
monopoly in tobacco, and if an Austrian officer were seen 
smoking on the street, he was subjected to all manner of 
persecutions. 

The whole peninsula, all through 1847, was m a state of 
unrest and of expectancy, and when, in February, 1848, 
Charles Albert granted Sardinia a Constitution, and the 
French Revolution overthrew bourgeois ascendency in 
France and its citizen king, Venice revolted from its 
Austrian rulers, and all Italy burst into a blaze. Those 
were the days when Mrs. Browning watched the progress of 
events in Tuscany through Casa Guidi windows. 

The Austrian general in Lombardy was Radetzky, a man 
past eighty, who had served under the Russian general, 
Suwarrow, against armies of the French Republic in Italy 
fifty years before, and had fought Napoleon in all his wars. 
The youngest officer on his staff could hardly keep up with 
the old Marshal in his rides. Though his hair was snow- 



104 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

white, his eyes had not lost their fire, nor his mind its quick 
decision. He was the idol of his Austrian soldiers. Never 
depressed by defeat, never elated by victory ; clement to 
the vanquished, and, though a leader in civil strife, one who 
never stained his hands in the blood of the defenceless or 
unresisting. He knew, when the insurrection burst out 
in Lombardy, that he must depend upon himself, — his 
Emperor had enough to do with troubles in Hungary and 
insurrection in Vienna. 

The revolution in Milan broke out on the 18th of March, 
1848, and for five days there was the most desperate street 
fighting ever known. 

" In all quarters of the city," says the Countess Cesaresco, 
whose husband in those days marched to Milan at the head of 
a band of rustic followers, " barricades sprang up like mush- 
rooms. Everything was freely given for their construction, the 
benches from the Opera House La Scala, the beds of the semi- 
narists, the court carriages found hidden in a disused church, 
building materials of a half-finished palace, grand pianofortes, 
valuable furniture, and the old kitchen tables of the artisan. 
... In the first straits for want of arms, the museums of two 
ancient families were emptied by permission of their owners ; 
the crowd brandished priceless old swords and specimens of 
early firearms. More serviceable weapons were obtained by 
degrees from the Austrian killed and wounded, and from the 
public offices which fell into their hands." 

" The very foundations of the city were torn up," wrote Field 
Marshal Radetzky, in his official report, "not hundreds, but 
thousands of barricades crossed the streets. Such circumspec- 
tion and audacity were displayed that it was evident military 
leaders were at the head of the people. The character of the 
Milanese had become quite changed. Fanaticism had seized 
every rank and age in both sexes." 

And yet, with all the excitement in those five days 
of fighting, the Milanese population showed wonderful 
forbearance. 

Radetzky ordered the evacuation of the town at last, and 
marched his thirteen thousand soldiers out. of it in the night 
of Wednesday, March 22. His garrison had consisted of 
eighteen thousand men, but five thousand of these, being 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN ITALY. 105 

Italians, had deserted and joined the Milanese, while 
volunteers from all the neighboring towns marched in to 
strengthen the patriot party. 

Wild was the enthusiasm of the Milanese at their success. 
They established a Provisional Government, and Charles 
Albert, declaring war against Austria, marched his Sardinian 
army to their aid. 

Charles Albert had no personal reason to complain of 
Austria, but he was animated by the general Italian feeling 
against Italy's foreign masters, and, like others, saw the finger 
of God in the events that were taking place. Besides, he 
could not but be sensible that, if Italy became a united king- 
dom, he was the chief who would be placed at its head. 

Charles Albert's army was in many respects well equipped 
and very efficient. His light infantry was among the best 
in the world. His want was the lack of generals of experi- 
ence, for in those days La Marmora and Dabormida had 
not come to the fore. 

The Austrians retreated from one strong position to 
another, till they made their final stand on the line of the 
river Mincio, defended by the fortresses known as the 
Quadrilateral, — Mantua, Peschiera, Legnago, and Verona. 
The Tyrolese remained enthusiastically faithful to their 
Austrian rulers, and were of great assistance to the Austrian 
commander. 

I must leave others to tell the details of the campaign of 
1848 in Lombardy, — how the tug of war swayed sometimes 
in favor of Radetzky, sometimes in favor of Charles Albert. 
The latter got his army within the celebrated Quadrilateral, 
took Peschiera, one of its great fortresses, and shut up the 
Austrians in Mantua and Verona. 

By the middle of the summer of 1848 the advantage was 
with Charles Albert. He had been offered the crown of 
Northern Italy, but had refused it, deeming the offer pre- 
mature. Venice had put herself under his authority, and 
for a brief space was governed by his commissioners. 

But he sorely needed reinforcements, and they were hard 
to obtain. There had been, as we have already seen, a 



106 ITALY IN THE XIXETEENTH CENTURY. 

strong body of Neapolitans under General Pepe despatched 
ostensibly to his assistance ; but secret orders had forbidden 
their general to lead them across the Po. When orders, in 
the spring of 1848, were received by the Neapolitan troops 
to return home, the larger part obeyed. When the Pope, 
on April 29, declared that he would not make war on 
Austria, the Roman patriots under General Durando crossed 
the frontier. They were met by the Austrians not far from 
Bologna. Being without military experience, they were cut 
to pieces. Among them were three thousand of the Pope's 
Swiss Guard, who fought brilliantly, losing two hundred out 
of every thousand men. 

Radetzky had about forty-four thousand men besides his 
sick and his soldiers in garrison. The Piedmontese army 
numbered about the same, but many were undisciplined 
volunteers, who could be little counted on in actual warfare. 
Charles Albert had, however, the advantage of being in a 
country that was friendly to him. On July 24 and 25, 
1848, took place the battle of Custozza, and Charles Albert 
lost it. It was fought in a heavy rain, and the Sardinian 
army was weakened by having too long a line to defend. 
The next day, however, Charles Albert so manoeuvred as to 
snatch from the Austrians all the fruit of their victory. 
But after that the situation changed. The King was 
unable to provision his army, and when his soldiers had 
suffered from hunger for three days, he was compelled to 
retire, and to surrender the great fortress of Peschiera, 
which it had cost him so much to gain. 

He continued his retreat to Milan, — a retreat which 
greatly discouraged his army ; and the republicans and 
foreign volunteers began to cry "Treason!" 

Radetzky closely followed the retreating army. " But," 
says Alison, " the troops of Charles Albert, though finally 
worsted, exhibited the courage in disaster which is the most 
honorable attribute of soldiers. All, however, was unavail- 
ing." The decree of Providence had been pronounced, 
and Italy was again for seventeen long years to pass under 
the Austrian dominion. 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN ITALY. 107 

Charles Albert, finding it would be impossible to save 
Milan, made his preparations. A capitulation was proposed 
and discussed, on the 5 th of August, but no sooner did the 
Milanese find out what was at hand, than they assembled 
tumultuously before the King's quarters, shouting : " Death 
to the Piedmontese ! War to the death with Austria ! A 
war of the barricades ! " 

Shots were fired in at the King's windows, and the Pied- 
montese soldiers were so exasperated at the conduct of the 
Milanese, that it required all the efforts of their officers to 
restrain them from charging the crowd, and avenging the 
insults heaped on their sovereign. 

And yet one can hardly blame the unhappy Milanese, 
who were to be delivered in a few hours into the hands of 
their enemies. 

The King was rescued from the fury of this exasperated 
mob by the gallantry of La Marmora, who, seeing the dan- 
ger increasing every moment, rushed out into the street, and, 
by sheer intrepidity, forced his way through the mob, col- 
lected a body of soldiers, returned with them to the King's 
quarters, and carried him off in safety. When they returned 
to Turin, the Queen asked to see Colonel La Marmora. 

" M. le Chevalier, you saved the King's life ! I shall 
preserve the recollection always in my memory," she ex- 
claimed, with trembling lips, as La Marmora kissed her 
hand, with the deep respectful sympathy which with him 
seldom found its way into words. 

" It was not only the King I wished to save," he said 
afterwards to a friend, " but the population of Milan from 
a horrible crime, the consequences of which would have 
been fatal to Italy." 

The authorities of Milan, dreading indiscriminate plun- 
der, or rash and useless resistance to the inevitable, on the 
departure of the Piedmontese army, requested that, before 
it left, the soldiers would remove the barricades. 

The Piedmontese army on August 6 quitted Milan before 
daybreak, and the Austrians entered it in triumph by ten 
o'clock the same day. 



I08 ITALY IX THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

u They swept by in superb order, in their white nnff orr- - - 
the triumphal:: strains of nil says AGs 

amidst the deathlike silence of all who witnessed : 
7 b r dreams of the enthusiasts had passed away, — the i 
of Italian independence had melted into air, — I be iron had 
entered the very souls of the Milanese 

Ten years more of suffering, and Milan was free : seven 
later and all Lombardy. Veneti _ iscan and the 

group of little duchies sometimes called E ;.:.'..;. were under 
the rule of Charies Albert's ; :n: a little longer and the 
[ream ifa United Itah is accomplished. One thinks of 
the old Hebrew verse, as it stands in Cranmefs version of 
the Psalms, in the Book of Common Prayer ! 
thou the Lord's leisure : be strong, and He shall comfort 
thine heart, and put thou thy trust in the Lor .'. 

Shortly after this, an armistice :":: ear "is concluded 
at Salasco, in which Charles Albert renounced any juris- 
diction over Venetia, and the little republic was left tmas- 
sistei te nght out her own quarreL 

Eighteen hundred and forty-eight was a sorrowful year 
for the King. The clerical party urged on him that all his 
misfortunes were in punishment for his opposition to the 
clergy. His mother and his wife supported this opinion, 
and left him no peace a for the good of his soul 

One of his ministers died, and no priest in Turin would 
give him the last sacraments; while all over Italy rose the 
cry : u We have put our trust in princes, and in vain : — 
the war of the people is about to commer. : e 

The revolutionary fires burnt higher than ever. It 
in : _: thai I stabbed, and that the Pope crosse 

his frontier, self-exiled into the kingdom of Ferdinand of 
Naples. Then the Roman Republic was proclaim 7 

The two leading republicans in Italy were Mazzini and 
Garibaldi. Mazzini was made the leading triumvir in the 
Roman Republic ; Garibaldi had been eng _ :'::ming 

I :nteer corps at Genoa, the headquarters of repub'.. 
ism in Italy, the city least loyal to Charles Albert in his 
dominions. He did not foresee the future. Be lid not 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN ITALY. 109 

foresee his friendship for the son of Charles Albert, but stig- 
matized that monarch and his Piedmontese at this period, 
as " moderate traitors." 

At the opening of the spring of 1849, in spite of the 
remonstrances of the French and English ministers at 
Turin, Charles Albert resumed preparations for war. " I 
must declare war," he said, " or abdicate and see a repub- 
lic established but to fall." 

On March 12 the armistice terminated. Charles Albert's 
army, notwithstanding his utmost exertions, was not effi- 
ciently equipped, and largely consisted of new levies. It 
had one hundred and thirty-five thousand men, on paper, 
but he could bring only eighty-three thousand fighting men 
into the field. The noisiest patriots clamored for a foreign 
general, complaining of former leaders as aristocratic do- 
nothings ; and a Polish refugee with a name that he never 
made sufficiently illustrious to tempt the world to pronounce, 
was set over the Piedmontese army. The theatre of war was 
to be that great and fertile plain of Lombardy watered by the 
river Po, — one of the garden spots of the whole earth. 

On March 18, Radetzky, after cautioning the inhabitants 
of Milan to give no cause of offence to the Austrian govern- 
ment during his absence, as he would soon come back in 
triumph and take account of how they had behaved, 
marched out of Milan in all his glory, and took the road 
that would lead him into the dominions of the Sardinian 
king. Germans, Austrians, Bohemians, Tyrolese, Italians, 
Magyars, Poles, and Croats were in his army, and when the 
signal to march was given, " the bands," says a spectator, 
" struck up enlivening airs, and all, in the finest order and 
the highest spirits, moved with a proud step, confident of 
victory." 

They crossed the river Ticino, and were on Piedmontese 
soil. " The fate of Italy seemed sealed," says Alison, " for 
sixty battalions of infantry, forty squadrons of cavalry, and 
one hundred and eighty-six cannon, — in all fifty-five 
thousand well-appointed combatants, — had entered, un- 
opposed, Charles Albert's territory." 



IIO ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

The fatal difference between the Italian and the Austrian 
armies was, that the one had a general on whom it could 
thoroughly depend, while the other, — the Italian army. — 
had next to no leader at all. The general who should have 
opposed the Austrians was Ramorino, the same who in 
1834 had made an abortive attempt to invade Savoy at the 
head of a small body of Poles and Mazzinists. He was 
said to be the illegitimate son of the great Marshal Lannes. 
With the foolish idea of copying a celebrated military 
movement of his father's, he crossed the Po in defiance of 
his instructions, and left the road to Turin open to 
enemy. The Austrians came on, gaining small advantages 
at even* step, which disheartened the young Italian troops, 
till both armies met near the city of Xovara. 

Charles Albert drew up his army with as much skill and 
in as advantageous a position as circumstances would allow. 
Fortune wavered from side to side for some hours. The 
sons of Charles Albert distinguished themselves by their 
braven- — so did the Austrian Archdukes in the other 
army, who were serving under Radetzky. But in the end 
the day was won by the Austrians. The reserve of the 
Piedmontese army, under the Duke of Genoa (Prince Fer- 
dinando Alberto Amadeo), performed prodigies of valor, 
and did all that men could do to arrest the disorder and 
cover the retreat of the defeated army. But Radetzky had 
been reinforced, and his numbers, as well as his discipline, 
were against the Italians. 

•• The day was lost, and a general retreat became unavoidable. 
Twelve guns were taken by the Austrians in their pursuit, but 
very few prisoners. The old soldiers of Piedmont retired, 
firing at intervals, and in admirable order, the Genoese and 
Lombard new recruits fled in utter confusion, and for the most 
part disbanded, and were never heard of more. In the town 
of Xovara. into which the defeated army poured during the 
night, the most dreadful confusion prevailed. Plunder immedi- 
ately began. The cavalry charged the fugitive crowds through 
the streets, and they were soon streaming in wild confusion 
over the roads to the mountain towns of Duomo, Ossola and 
Arona, the only refuge left open to them." 




FIELD MARSHAL RADETZKY. 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN LTALY. I I I 

All retreat to Turin was cut off. They had nowhere to 
retire to but the inhospitable barrier of the Alps, where 
little food was to be had, and where the denies would have 
soon made the roads impassable for a retreating army. 
Only an immediate armistice could save them. 

All through the day Charles Albert had borne himself 
like a gallant soldier. About seven in the evening, when 
the battle was evidently irretrievably lost, he permitted 
General Durando to lead him away. But even then he 
lingered under the walls of Novara, where bullets were 
falling fast, hoping that one would strike him, saying, 
" General, this is my last day ; — let me die ! " 

About nine o'clock, when prevailed upon to withdraw 
into the town, he assembled such of his principal officers 
and counsellors as he could collect together, and declared 
to them that he was unalterably resolved to abdicate in 
favor of his son Victor Emmanuel, the Duke of Savoy. 
" I have sacrificed myself," he said, " for the Italian cause. 
For it I have exposed my life, that of my children, and my 
throne. I have failed. I am aware that I am the sole 
obstacle to a peace that has now become necessary for our 
State. I could not bring myself to sign it. Since in vain I 
have sought death, I give myself up, a last sacrifice to 
my country. I lay down the crown, and abdicate in favor 
of my son." 

After this, he dismissed his attendants, sat down and 
wrote a farewell letter to his wife, and at one in the morn- 
ing presented himself at the Austrian outposts, where he 
narrowly escaped being fired on with grape shot. He gave 
his name as a Piedmontese gentleman, bearer of despatches 
to Count Thurn. When he reached that general and made 
known his name and rank, great was the astonishment of 
the Austrians. He was allowed at once to pass the Aus- 
trian lines. He passed one night in a convent on the moun- 
tains, spending his time in prayer. Then he made his way 
to Nice, and thence to Oporto, where he died of a broken 
heart a few months after. The last words spoken by him 
on Italian soil were : " In whatever time, in whatever place, 



112 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

a regular government raises the flag of war with Austria, the 
Austrians will find me among their enemies as a simple 
soldier." 

At the opening of the campaign, at the close of a long 
conversation tete-a-tete with the Marquis Pallavicini, one of 
the amnestied Spielberg prisoners, Charles Albert had said, 
as he embraced the ex-prisoner at parting, " You and I had 
always the same thought. The independence of Italy was 
the first dream of my youth. It is my dream still. It will 
be till I die." 

General Pepe, writing only a year later, for Italians 
disappointed, humiliated, and inclined to cry "Treachery ! " 
emphatically expresses over and over again his high confi- 
dence in the honest purposes and patriotism of Charles 
Albert. 

"It is my firm conviction,"' he says, "that there was no 
treachery in him whatever, and that all Italy should be grateful 
to the Piedmontese army, and still more to Charles Albert and 
his two sons, who, without hesitation, exposed their lives and 
fortunes for the Italian cause, without being discouraged by the 
misfortunes of the first campaign. Italians ! there is no citizen 
who more than myself has had occasion to show how much 
more he is devoted to his country than to kings. From kings I 
desire nothing; nor could I, without being wanting to myself, 
accept any personal favors from them. Nevertheless, I repeat 
that we should all remember Charles Albert with gratitude, as 
well as his sons, who valiantly followed him to the field of bat- 
tle, and who cannot now ever deviate from the line of policy 
embraced by their father, without exposing themselves to dis- 
honor and the loss of their throne.*' 

And it is thus that poetry has spoken of Charles Albert, 
who, having sought death in vain, laid down on the last 
battle-field his sword and crown : — 

" He stripped away 
Th' ancestral ermine ere the smoke was cleared, 
And, naked to the soul, — that none might say 
His kingship covered what was base, and bleared 
With treason, — he went out an exile ; — yea, 
An exiled patriot. Let him be revered. . . . 



CHARLES ALBERT AND NORTHERN ITALY, I I 3 

For he was shriven, I think, in cannon smoke ; 
And, taking off his crown, made visible 
A hero's forehead. Shaking Austria's yoke, 
He shattered his own hand and heart." * 

Almost the first words the new King, Victor Emmanuel,, 
uttered as a sovereign were worthy of the son of his father, 
— worthy of himself. Pointing his sword toward the Aus- 
trian camp, he exclaimed, "Per Dio / V Italia sard/" 
" In the name of God, Italy shall yet be ! " 

1 Mrs. Browning. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THROUGH CASA GUIDI WINDOWS. 

\ 71CTOR EMMANUEL had sworn that Italy should be! 
* — though all things round him as he took that oath 
seemed adverse to his hopes. The year 1849 was a sorrow- 
ful one for Italy, even as 187 1 was for France. 

In the summer of 1849, Rome was besieged, and the 
little republic crushed, by Frenchmen acting in the name 
of another republic. After seventeen months' absence at 
Gaeta, Pio Nono, under the protection of the French, 
returned to the Quirinal, and resumed his temporal sover- 
eignty ; Ferdinand of Naples also went back to his capital 
to wreak vengeance on his revolted subjects ; Bologna in the 
Papal States, and Brescia in Lombardy were occupied by 
the Austrians, Marshal Haynau commanding in the assault 
on the latter city. His name alone would suffice to tell what 
woes fell on its inhabitants. Venice had better treatment. 
She held out until the close of August, 1849, an( ^ was tnen 
suffered to make an honorable capitulation. At the close of 
May, 1849, tne Grand Duke Leopold returned to Tuscany, 
escorted by the Austrians, and with them made a triumphal 
entry into Florence, at the head of the troops who had 
fought at Novara, each man wearing a sprig of green from 
that sad field, as he strode on through the streets of Flor- 
ence. Garibaldi was a fugitive and his " Thousand " were 
disbanded ; Francis of Modena, Charles of Parma, and 
Charles Louis, Duke of Lucca, were safely back in their 
own dominions. Of these things a brief account must be 
given in this chapter, — a chapter, it may be, of shreds and 
patches, — while the next will be devoted to the troubles of 



THROUGH CAS A GUIDI WINDOWS. 1 1 5 

the same year in the Austrian dominions, best told in a 
brief biography of Kossuth. We may then return to Victor 
Emmanuel, and pursue his career up to 1866, the date of 
the battle of Sadowa. The writer of Italian history, as well 
as the Italian patriot, has cause to sigh for a United Italy. 

After the surrender of Charles Albert, the Austrians turned 
their attention to the punishment of Brescia, a city of Lom- 
bardy, and therefore in revolt against its Austrian Emperor. 
Other cities in Lombardy, seeing resistance hopeless, had 
made terms with the Austrians, but the fire of patriotism 
burned strongly in Brescia. "She had," says the Countess 
Martinengo Cesaresco, whose husband was a Brescian, 
whose ancestor, indeed, commanded in that city while it 
still held out — " a love of liberty which was an hereditary 
instinct from her long connection with free Venice, where 
hatred of the foreigner, planted by the ruthless soldiery of 
Gaston de Foix, had gone on maturing for three centuries. 
In Brescia, with a single mind, the inhabitants resolved 
upon as desperate a resistance as was ever offered by one 
little town to a great army." 

The Austrian troops were commanded by a skilful general 
of Irish descent, named Nugent. He died in the midst of 
the bombardment, but, struck with admiration for the forty 
thousand inhabitants of the little city which defied a victo- 
rious army eighty thousand strong, he left, on his deathbed, 
by his will, all his fortune to the city he was endeavor- 
ing to conquer. Field-Marshal Haynau succeeded him. 
Haynau was already known in Brescia, where he had been 
appointed military governor after Austria had resumed her 
authority a year before. 

He reported to his government the attack he made upon 
the city after its bombardment, and the narrative may be 
best told in hij own words. 

" It was," he wrote, " a most murderous fight, a fight pro- 
longed by the insurgents from barricade to barricade, from house 
to house, with extraordinary obstinacy. I could never have be- 
lieved that so bad a cause could have been sustained with so 
much perseverance. In spite of this desperate defence, and al- 



Il6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

though the assault could only be effected in part, and with the 
help of cannon of heavy calibre, our brave troops, with heroic cour- 
age, but at the cost of many lives, occupied a first line of houses. 
But as all my columns could not penetrate into the town at the 
same time, I ordered the suspension of the attack at nightfall. 
limiting myself to holding my ground. In spite of that, the 
combat continued late into the night. On April I, in the ear- 
liest morning light, the tocsin was heard ringing with more fury 
than ever, and the insurgents opened fire with an entirely new 
desperation. Considering the gravity of our losses, as well as 
the obstinacy and fury of the enemy, it was necessary to adopt 
a most rigorous measure. I ordered that no prisoners should be 
taken, but that every person seized with arms in his hands should 
be immediately put to death, and that the houses from which 
shots came should be burnt. It is thus that conflagrations, 
partly caused by our troops, partly by the bombardment, broke 
out in several parts of the city."' 

The Countess Martinengo Cesaresco, who has almost the 

authority of an eye-witness, speaks thus : — 

" From the nobles to the poorest, all did their duty. The 
horrors of the repression make one think of Khartoum. Not 
even in Hungary, where Haynau went to continue his * sys- 
tem,' did he so blacken his own and his country's name as here. 
In a boy's school, kept by a certain Guidi, the master's wife, his 
mother, and ten of his pupils were slaughtered. A little hunch- 
back tailor was carried to the barracks to be slowly burned 
alive. But stray details do not give the faintest idea of the 
whole." 

Count Martinengo, after the Austrians were in possession, 
escaped from the city by the assistance of a band of young 
butchers who organized his flight. It took him ten days to 
reach safety, and he had many hairbreadth escapes on his 
perilous way. A prize of 3,000 florins was set upon his 
head. * 

Among all the States of Italy, after the territories of that 
fair land had been portioned out by the Congress of Vienna. 
Tuscany was the most tranquil, the most prosperous, the 
best governed. There political fugitives from other States 
sometimes found refuge. Its Grand Duke was unlike other 



THROUGH CAS A GUIDI WINDOWS. W] 

Bourbons ; he was far from being unpopular with his sub- 
jects, and many Italians thought that, in the event of secur- 
ing Italian unity or a northern and central Italian kingdom, 
it might be well to place him on the Italian throne. 

In 1847, when Pio Nono was granting reforms in his 
dominions, the Grand Duke, almost unsolicited, granted 
his subjects greater freedom of the press, and an improved 
civil code. An assembly of wise men, — men of character 
and authority, — was summoned to take into consideration 
further reforms, and the organization of a Garda Civile, or 
National Guard. On September 5, 1847, a procession of 
twenty thousand Florentines marched to the Pitti Palace 
to express enthusiastic gratitude to their Duke. But Prince 
Metternich lost no time in "reprimanding the Grand Duke, 
and disapproving of his new policy. 

The revolution went on, Rome to all appearance, leading 
the way. In February, 1848, when Europe was ablaze, 
Duke Leopold promised a Constitution, and appeared 
among his people in the uniform of a colonel of the Civic 
Guard. On March 13, 1848, a revolution in Vienna drove 
Prince Metternich into exile. Then came the murder of 
Count Rossi, the flight of the Pope, and disasters to the 
army of Charles Albert in Lombardy. It seemed probable 
that Austria would regain her ascendency in Italy. Leopold 
had already authorized the calling into existence of an Ital- 
ian Constituent Assembly, which should offer plans for the 
federation of the various Italian States, and on January 10, 
1849, ne opened a Tuscan Parliament as a preliminary 
measure. Then he grew frightened, and, pleading impaired 
health, removed with his family from Florence to Siena. 
Thence, under pretence of taking a drive, he set off for a 
seaport on the Mediterranean, whence, a month later, he 
repaired to Gaeta, where the Pope and Ferdinand of Naples 
were awaiting the turn of events which would restore them 
to their capitals. 

After the battle of Novara, the Austrians, heartened by 
their successes in Northern Italy, marched into Tuscany, 
and restored Leopold II. to his archducal throne. 



Il8 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Mrs. Browning saw all these events from Casa Guidi 
windows, and there is no account of what passed during 
those days in Florence so vivid as hers. From those win- 
dows she gazed down upon the crowds that greeted the 
Grand Duke's reforms in September, 1847, — accepting 
them as the first-fruits of his new Liberalism. 

The exultant Florentines passed the house in orderly pro- 
cession, banners waved, music played, and thousands of 
voices joined in patriotic songs. The magistrates passed 
by, the insignia of their office glittering in the sun; the 
great crowd shouted frantically at the sight, while from the 
windows all along the route hung blue and green and scar- 
let draperies, and ladies flung down flowers, wreaths, and 
bay leaves on the heads of those they recognized, as the 
procession passed their houses. Especially were the lawyers 
greeted in this way. 

Then followed deputations from every local division of 
the archduchy, each with its banner, on which was emblaz- 
oned the emblem of its city, — the she-wolf of Siena, the 
hare of Pisa, the golden lion of Massa, the silver one of 
Pienza, the war-horse of Arezzo, and so on. 

It took three hours for the procession to pass Casa Guidi, 
while the crowd that looked on, filled with patriotic emo- 
tion and enthusiasm, laughed, shouted, wept, and fraternized 
with one another. And Mrs. Browning cried : — 

" Oh ! heaven, I think that day had noble use 
Among God's days ! . . . " 

When the procession had reached the Pitti Palace, Duke 
Leopold came forth upon the balcony to receive their greet- 
ings. He had his little children by his side, and said some- 
thing of his hope that they would some day govern Tuscany 
in accordance with the good- will of the people, making 
Florence prosperous and happy. There were tears in his 
eyes and on his cheeks, " good, warm, human tears," said 

Mrs. Browning. 

" I like his face. The forehead's build 
Has no capacious genius, — yet, perhaps, 
Sufficient comprehension ; — mild and sad, 
And care-full nobly. Not with care that wraps 



THROUGH CASA GUIDI WINDOWS. II9 

Self-loving hearts, to stifle and make mad, 

But care-full with the care that shuns each lapse 

Of faith and duty. . . . So, God save the Duke ! 
I say with those who that day shouted it." 

Alas ! a few weeks passed and the scene changed. Mar- 
garet Fuller, then in Italy, wrote thus of the disappointment 
of the Florentines when they found that the concessions of 
the Grand Duke did not come up to their expectations : — 

" The first announcement of the regulation for the Tuscan 
Civic Guard terribly disappointed the people. They felt that 
the Grand Duke, after suffering them to demonstrate such trust 
and joy on the feast of September 5, did not really trust on his 
side, — that he meant to limit all he could. They felt baffled, 
cheated. Hence, young men in anger tore down at once the 
symbols of satisfaction and respect, but the leading men went 
among the people, exhorting them to wait till a deputation had 
seen the Grand Duke. The people listened at once to the men 
who, they were sure, had their best good at heart, — and waited. 
The Grand Duke became convinced, and it all ended without 
bloodshed. If the people continue to act so, their hopes cannot 
be baffled." 

So wrote an American lady, full of faith, hope, charity, 
and enthusiasm. She did not yet know her Italy as Mrs. 
Browning knew it, who, gazing from Casa Guidi windows, 
viewed with different sensations the outburst of civic rapture 
when the Duke, lately the popular idol, fled to Gaeta. 

11 From Casa Guidi windows I looked out — 
Again looked, and beheld a different sight . . . 

Long live the people ! How they lived and boiled 
And bubbled in the caldron of the street ! 

How the young blustered, nor the old recoiled. 
And what a thunderous stir of tongues and feet 

Trod flat the palpitating bells, and foiled 
The joy £uns of their echo; . . . 

How down they pulled the Duke's arms everywhere ; 
How 110 they set the cafe signs to show 

Where patriots might sip ices in pure air, — 
(The fresh paint smelling somewhat !). To and fro 

How marched the Civic Guard, and stopped to stare 
When boys broke windows in a civic glow. 

How rebel songs were sung to loyal tunes, 
And bishops cursed in ecclesiastic metres. . . . 



120 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

How of Guerazzi men cried : ' There 's a man ! 
The father of the land, — who truly great 

Takes off that national disgrace and ban, 
The farthing tax upon our Florence Gate, 

And saves Italia as he only can ! ' 
How all the nobles fled, and would not wait 

Because they were most noble ; — which, being so, 
The Liberals vowed to burn their palaces, 

Because free Tuscans were not free to go. 
How grown men raged at Austria's wickedness, 

And smoked, while fifty striplings in a row 
Marched straight to Piedmont for the wrong's redress. 

Who says we failed in duty, — we who wore 
Black velvet like Italian democrats, 

Who slashed our sleeves like patriots ; nor forswore 
The true Republic in the form of hats ? 

We chased the Archbishop from the Duomo door ; 
We chalked the walls with bloody caveats 

Against all tyrants. If we did not fight, 
At least we fired muskets in the air 

To show that victory was ours of right. 
We met, — had free discussion everywhere 

(Except, perhaps, in the Chambers) day and night. 
We proved the poor should be employed, — 't was fair, — 

And yet the rich not worked for ; everywhere 
Pay certified, — yet payers abrogated ; — 

Full work secured, yet liabilities 
To over-work excluded ; — not one bated 

Of all our holidays, that still at twice 
Or thrice a week are moderately rated. 

We proved that Austria was dislodged, or would 
Or should be ; and that Tuscany in arms 

Should, would, dislodge her ; ending our old feud. 
And yet to leave our piazzas, shops, and farms, 

For the simple sake of fighting, was not good. 
We proved that also. ' Did we carry charms 

Against being killed ourselves, that we should rush 
On killing others ? What ! desert herewith 

Our wives and mothers ? — was that duty ? Tush ! ' 
At which we shook the sword within the sheath 

Like heroes, — only louder." 

Well might Charles Albert, who had known popularity 
and popular contumely, say that one was as little to be re- 
garded as the other. Our Shakespeare knew the class that 
Italians call il popolo, the French le peuple, and whom he 
calls " mechanicals." 



THROUGH CAS A GUIDI WINDOWS. 121 

The battle of Novara had been fought. 

" From Casa Guidi windows, gazing then 
I saw, and witness how the Duke came back, — 

The regular tramp of horse and tread of men 
Did smite the silence, like an anvil black 

And sparkless. With her wide eyes at full strain 
Our Tuscan nurse exclaimed : ' Alack ! Alack ! 

Signora, these shall be the Austrians ! ' ' Nay, 
Be still/ I answered, ' do not wake the child.' 

For so my two-months baby sleeping lay 
In milky dreams upon the bed, and smiled. . . . 

Then, gazing, I beheld the long-drawn street 
Alive from end to end, full in the sun 

With Austria's thousands, sword and bayonet, 
Horse, foot, artillery ; cannon rolling on 

Like blind, slow storm-clouds, gestant with the heat 
Of undeveloped lightnings. Each bestrode 

By a single man, dust-white from head to heel, 
Indifferent as the dreadful thing he rode. . . . 

So swept, in mute significance of storm, 
The marshalled thousands ; not an eye deflect 

To left or right, to catch a novel form 
Of Florence city, adorned by architect 

Or carver ; or of beauties, live and warm, 
Scared at the casements ; — all, straight forward eyes 

And faces, held as steadfast as their swords . . . 
While every soldier in his cap displayed 

A leaf of olive. Dusty, bitter thing ! — 
Was such plucked at Novara, as 't is said ? " 

Thus Leopold, Archduke of Austria, Grand Duke of Tus- 
cany, came back to Florence. He was restored by Austria 
as a despotic sovereign. Ten years later, when war was 
about to break out with Austria he refused a proffered alli- 
ance with France and Piedmont, though the leading states- 
men in Florence, men who to a certain extent enjoyed his 
confidence, Ricasoli and Capponi, did their best to persuade 
him to unite with his people in favor of the national cause. 
But he again preferred exile and the protection of Austria. 
He left Florence and took refuge in the Austrian camp. A 
provisional government was formed which placed the Tuscan 
forces at the disposal of Victor Emmanuel, and shortly after 
the Tuscans by a plebiscite acknowledged him their king. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

HPHE course of history may in most cases be compared to 
■*■ the course of a river, sometimes rapid, sometimes 
sluggish, but in almost all cases it has a main stream, flow- 
ing steadily on its way from source to mouth. Such is not 
the case with the history of Italy. For more than ten cen- 
turies its main stream had divided and subdivided into 
numerous branches, and any writer who may set himself to 
tell its story must frequently go back to the point from 
which he last started if he would produce an intelligible and 
interesting narrative of any of its principal events. 

Thus, though I have already said a few words concerning 
the Roman Republic, much remains to be told, especially 
as the history of its brief existence brings a new character 
upon the scene, — Garibaldi, who was Italy's most popular 
hero for almost thirty years. 

Patriot as he was, Garibaldi's lack of statesmanship, and 
superabundance of unenlightened sympathy and enthusiasm, 
would assuredly have made shipwreck of the cause of United 
Italy had there not been wiser men to say him nay. Hap- 
pily, being susceptible to personal influences in an extraor- 
dinary degree, his enthusiasm was in a manner regulated 
by steadier minds. Thus, by turns, Mazzini, Pio Nono, 
Charles Albert, and for a time again Mazzini, were the ob- 
jects of his trust and admiration. To them succeeded 
Cavour and Victor Emmanuel (though personal liking he 
never gave Cavour). These held him in leash for some 
years, after which he professed himself a friend and fol- 
lower of Victor Hugo, Rochefort, and French Red Repub- 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 23 

licans. But he always declared himself to be the Re Gal- 
antuomo's affectionate and personal friend. The form of 
government in which he seems most steadily to have be- 
lieved, was a Republic, with himself as its dictator. Consti- 
tutionalism he neither accepted nor understood. 

He displayed the same unenlightened enthusiasm in his 
religion. While he early threw off his allegiance to the 
church of his fathers, he yet wrote and spoke, while under 
the influence of his noble friend, the patriotic Barnabite 
monk, Ugo Bassi, like a truly religious man. Later, he 
attacked in ferocious language, not only the Roman hier- 
archy but all those who looked on priests as their spiritual 
fathers. In his earlier campaigns he would suffer his fol- 
lowers to commit no pillage of churches, no desecration of 
sacred things, while during his French campaign in 18 71, 
the sacrileges they committed caused the peasantry of the 
Vosges to consider them bandits rather than allies. 

However, to go back to Rome, as it was on the morning 
of November 24, 1848, when its inhabitants awoke to learn 
that the Holy Father had abandoned the Quirinal and had 
crossed the Neapolitan frontier. 

We cannot but sympathize with the self-exiled Pio Nono ; 
we sympathize with his deserted and bewildered subjects. 
But the first thing the Roman people thought to do was to 
make a joyful demonstration. In the course of it they col- 
lected the wooden confessionals from the churches, with the 
intention of burning them on the Piazza del Popolo. Ci- 
ceruacchio, however, mounted the pile, and, addressing the 
crowd, said : " I formerly thought it would be a good thing to 
burn these monuments of corruption to our wives and 
daughters, but our leading men fear that the smoke of their 
burning may hurt the eyes of European diplomatists 'and 
dispose them against us. They understand the matter bet- 
ter than we do; therefore let us obey them." 

When Ciceruacchio spoke he was invariably obeyed. 
But the crowd was not to be balked of its bonfire, so it 
turned its vengeance against the guillotine. 

Pio Nono's first act on reaching Gaeta was to excom- 



124 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

municate those he held to be his enemies, — his late min- 
isters and others, more especially all who might take part in 
any clamor for universal suffrage. 

This brief was forwarded to all bishops in the Papal 
States, but few of them seemed inclined to publish it. 
The insurgents, however, secured a copy, and gave it the 
widest circulation. 

As usual, the Roman people made a demonstration, first, 
however, electing by universal suffrage a Roman Constituent 
Assembly. Then they amused themselves by performing 
a funeral ceremony over the Pope's brief of excommunica- 
tion, after they had burnt it publicly. They then proceeded 
to excommunicate the Pope himself, and to cut him off from 
all Christian sympathy and communion. 

The flight of the Pope and the resignation of his min- 
isters left Rome for a time without any kind of legal gov- 
ernment and with a prospect of anarchy. The Assembly 
did not meet till February 5, 1849. Meantime, it was 
largely owing to the influence of Ciceruacchio that order 
was preserved in the city. The Pope had, indeed, left be- 
hind him a letter exhorting the people to preserve order in 
the absence of any lawful authority, and very remarkably 
that order was maintained. 



" Of great help in quieting the people's passions," says the 
Countess Cesaresco, " was Ciceruacchio. He never put on 
black cloth clothes, or asked to be admitted into the Ministry, 
according to the usual wont of successful tribunes. He had the 
sense of humor of the genuine Roman popolano, and it never 
came into his head to make himself ridiculous. His influence 
had been first acquired by works of charity in the Tiber floods. 
Being a strong swimmer, he ventured where no one else would 
go, and had saved many lives. At first a wine-carrier, he made 
money by letting out conveyances and dealing in forage, but he 
gave away most of what he made. He opposed the whole force 
of his popularity to a war of classes. Viva chi c'ia, e chi ?ion 
c'ia quattrini!''' 1 (Long live who has money and who has none !) 
was his favorite cry. Once when a young poet read him a son- 
net in his honor, tie stopped him at the line ' Thou art greater 
than all patricians,' saying that he would not have that pub- 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 25 

lished : ' I respect the nobility and never dream of being higher 
than they. I am a poor man of the people, and such I will 
always remain ! " 

Two hundred representatives made up the Assembly. 
Of these a large number were lawyers, some were rich land- 
owners, two were Jews, two were priests, and one was a 
monsignor. They at once confirmed the deposition of the 
Pope as their temporal ruler, and then came the question of 
a new form of government. The majority were in favor of 
a Roman Republic ; a few were for delaying action, as they 
hoped Charles Albert, who had retired into Piedmont after 
the armistice that followed the battle of Custozza, would 
again take the field against the Austrians in the spring. 
These, however, were overruled. More radical views pre- 
vailed. The populace was delighted to make the occasion 
an excuse for a Roman holiday. They illuminated their 
city, they gave vent to transports of joy. 

The decree of deposition ran thus : — 

" I. The Papacy has fallen in fact and in right from the tem- 
poral government of the Roman States. 

"II. The Roman Pontiff shall have all necessary guarantees 
for the independent exercise of his spiritual power. 

"III. The form of government in the Roman States shall be a 
pure democracy, and shall take the glorious name of the Roman 
Republic. 

" IV. The Roman Republic shall have such relations with the 
rest of Italy as the common nationality demands." 

This decree was published February 9, 1849, an d the 
colors of Italy superseded the banner of the Papacy, with 
its crossed keys. It was not until March that Mazzini 
arrived in Rome. He entered the Eternal City (where he 
had never been before) as a Roman citizen, having been 
made such by an especial decree. Garibaldi, too, had 
been summoned, and reached Rome about the same time 
with his somewhat disorderly legion, which had been re- 
cruited to strengthen Charles Albert in his war with the 
Austrians. 



126 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Mazzini, and two others, Armellini and Saffi, men whose 
names never became world-famous, were elected triumvirs. 
The good order they maintained in Rome was as creditable 
as it was surprising. "That at such a time," wrote Mr. 
Henry Lushington, " not one lawless or evil deed was done 
would have been rather a miracle than a merit, but on 
much concurrent testimony it is clear that the efforts of the 
government to preserve order were incessant, and to a 
remarkable degree successful." He adds that the streets 
were far safer for ordinary passengers under the triumvirs 
than under the Papacy. 

The little Roman Republic had expected to wage war 
with Austria, Spain, and Naples. It never occurred to her 
people that their dangerous enemy was France. However, 
on November 28, 1848, when news of the Pope's flight 
reached Paris, Cavaignac, who had been dictator of the 
French Republic since the riots in June of the same year, 
suggested to the French Chamber of Deputies to send 
troops to Civita Vecchia for the protection of the Pope 
from all or any of his enemies, whether Austrians or Red 
Republicans. The Republican ministry deprecated such 
intervention. The Pope and his friends were negotiating 
for the formation of a league for his support between Aus- 
tria, Spain, and Naples. Doubtful of the precise intentions 
of the French Republic, Pio Nono refused to take any part 
in the scheme of the French Assembly. " If you say openly 
that you are going to give me back my temporal power, 
well and good. If not, I prefer the aid of Austria," was his 
reply to overtures made him on the part of the French 
government. 

Mazzini, who for some time past had been fomenting a 
republican spirit in Rome, had come from Paris, fresh from 
the excitement of a French Revolution. He believed in 
assurances he had received from that advanced Republican, 
Ledru-Rollin, a member of the provisional government, 
who alternately opposed Lamartine and allied himself with 
him. Ledru-Rollin felt enthusiastic sympathy for all " Red 
Republicans," and he assured Mazzini that the French, 




GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 27 

faithful to that clause in their new Constitution which bound 
France never to bear arms against the freedom of any peo- 
ple, would give Roman Republicans their fullest sympathy 
and support. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected Presi- 
dent of the French Republic, December 10, 1848, and 
Mazzini and his party argued that since he had fought and 
suffered for Italian liberty in 1831, and had been bound by 
the most solemn oaths to do all in his power to help Italy to 
deliver herself from the yoke of the foreigner, he would not 
neglect this opportunity of championing the Italian cause. 

Mazzini at once, therefore, despatched a mission to the 
Northern Powers and to England and France. He felt 
confident of securing from the two last, if not active help, 
at least neutrality. But this mission gave the Romans little 
ground for hope. A naval expedition was being already 
fitted out at Toulon for Italian waters; on April 26, 1849, 
it appeared off Civita Vecchia. An officer came on shore 
and begged permission of the commander of the city 
peaceably to land some troops that his vessels had on 
board. These troops, he said, had been sent by the French 
government to assist Rome and the late Papal States to 
defend themselves against the Austrians, the progress of 
that power being a menace against France. 

The commander at Civita Vecchia had less faith in 
French Republicans than Mazzini had ; he openly ex- 
pressed distrust of their intentions, but at last, by promises 
and arguments, the French troops obtained permission to 
land, and almost immediately took their way to Rome. 

General Oudinot was their commander. He was son of 
that Marshal, — the Due de Reggio, — who had served in 
all Napoleon's campaigns, and who had died about eighteen 
months before. 

Rome had never stood a siege since the days of the Duke 
of Bourbon and Benvenuto Cellini, — in other words, thirty- 
seven years before the birth of William Shakespeare. Its 
defences were very poor. Garibaldi and his men were re- 
called with all speed from the Neapolitan frontier. But 
had it not been for Mazzini's confidence in French Repub- 



128 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

licans, more time might have been allowed him as General 
in Chief to make ready to receive the invaders. The 
Roman Constituent Assembly passed a unanimous decree 
to "repel force by force." This decree was announced to 
the assembled Roman people by the whole body, standing 
together in an open square, and Mazzini added that all 
Europe was now against them, but that it was for Romans 
to oppose a desperate resistance to a despotic league. 

Barricades were thrown up in the streets, and the ap- 
proach of the French was waited for with great determina- 
tion ; but the Romans were very insufficiently armed, — 
many had only pikes, or ancient arquebuses. 

On April 31, at nine in the morning, the advanced guard 
of the French was seen approaching. It had been Oudi- 
not's plan to reach the gates at an early hour, to take 
possession of the city before midday, hear high mass at St. 
Peter's, and banquet in the Vatican. 

The Romans expected the attack on the side of the Hill 
Janiculum, that having been considered the key to the 
defence since the days of Lars Porsena. The gate on that 
side is the gate of San Pancrazio, where Garibaldi was 
stationed, awaiting attack, but the French general, learning 
that the Vatican gardens were defended only by National 
Guards, made his first assault in that direction. His forces 
were twice repulsed, — both parties after the first attack 
having received reinforcements. 

As the French retreated, Garibaldi and his legion rushed 
out of the San Pancrazio gate and fell upon them. The 
struggle was terrible. The Romans fought, knowing that 
they were holding out against hope, that victory itself would 
make their ruin more sure. But this time also they con- 
quered. The French troops, veterans from Africa, turned 
their backs and fled. The Romans took five hundred 
prisoners ; the French a single man, Ugo Bassi, the monk, 
who, kneeling by the side of a sorely wounded comrade, 
would not abandon him. The French had come on un- 
provided with surgeons, ambulances, or medicines. General 
Oudinot demanded an armistice, and begged for medical 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. I 29 

assistance. Both were accorded him, and the Romans sent 
him back all his unwounded prisoners, receiving in return 
their own Ugo Bassi. 

Hospital service was well organized in Rome, under the 
superintendence of a lady very prominent in those revolu- 
tionary days, the Princess Belgiojoso. The sick were 
attended by Roman married ladies. One hospital was put 
under the care of our own countrywoman, Margaret Fuller, 
then in Rome, awaiting the turn of political events for a 
propitious moment in which to announce to her family and 
friends her marriage to the young Marquis Ossoli. 

" Night and day," says Mrs. William Story, " Margaret was 
occupied, and, with the Princess, so ordered and disposed the 
hospitals that the organization was truly admirable. All the work 
was skillfully divided, so that there was no confusion or hurry, 
and, from the chaotic condition in which these places had been 
left by those who had previously had charge of them, they 
brought them to a state of perfect regularity and discipline. Of 
money they had very little, and were obliged to give time and 
thought in its place. From the Americans in Rome they raised 
a subscription for the wounded of either party, but besides this 
they had scarcely any means to use. I have walked through 
the wards with Margaret, and seen how comforting was her 
presence to the poor suffering men. 'How long will the 
Signora stay?' 'When will the Signora come again?' For 
each one's peculiar tastes she had a care ; to one she carried 
books ; to another she told the news of the day; and listened to 
another's oft-repeated tale of wrongs, as the best sympathy she 
could give. There were some of the sturdy fellows of Gari- 
baldi's legion there, and to them she listened as they spoke with 
delight of their chief, of his courage and skill, for he seemed 
to have won the hearts of his men in a remarkable manner." 

Margaret herself says, in a letter to Ralph Waldo 
Emerson : — 

"It was a terrible battle — that of April 30 — fought here 
from dawn till the last light of day. I could see all its progress 
from my balcony. The Italians fought like lions. It is a 
truly h:roic spirit that animates them. . . . Many, especially 
among the Lombards, are the flower of the Italian youth. . . . 
The Palace of the Pope on the Quirinal is now used for con- 
valescents, — some are French, some German, and many Poles. 

9 



130 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Indeed, I am afraid it is too true that there were comparatively 
few Romans among them." 

Notwithstanding the hostile conduct of the French, Maz- 
zini still had faith in both the influence and sympathy of 
Ledru-Rollin. Garibaldi would gladly have received per- 
mission to consummate his work. " I said I would drive 
these French troops from the walls of Rome," he cried,. 
" and now I would promise that not one of them should 
reach their vessels." 

Garibaldi, in March, 1849, na d been on his way wdth 
about thirteen hundred Red Shirts to join Charles Albert in 
Lombardy. When near Ravenna he received news of the 
battle of Xovara, and the evacuation of Milan. He paused, 
therefore, taking a position at Rieti, whence the Republican 
authorities in Rome sent for him and his legionaries. He 
had entered Rome during the month of April, and his arrival 
there is thus described by Gibson, the English sculptor : — 

" Those who witnessed the entrance of Garibaldi's legion, 
saw one of the strangest scenes ever beheld in the Eternal City. 
The men wore pointed hats with black waving plumes ; thin 
and gaunt, with their faces dark as copper, with naked legs, 
long beards, and dark hair hanging down their backs, they 
looked like a company of Salvator Rosa's brigands. Beautiful 
as a statue amidst his extraordinary host rode the chief, mounted 
on a white horse, which he sat like a centaur. He was quite a 
show, even- one stopping to look at him." 

" Probably," writes another Englishman, " a human face so 
like a lion, and still retaining the humanity nearest the image of 
its Maker, was never seen. Garibaldi wore the historic red 
shirt, and a small cap ornamented with gold. The origin of the 
red shirt was given a few years since in the reminiscences of an 
English naval officer. The men employed in the great slaugh- 
tering and salting establishments in the Argentine provinces wore 
scarlet woollen shirts. Owing to the blockade of Buenos Ayres. 
a merchant in Monte Video had a quantity of these red shirts on 
hand. and. as economy was a great object, the lot was bought up 
cheap for the Italian legion, with little prevision that their wearers 
would make the camicia rossa immortal in song and history." 

During the armistice between Oudinot and the Roman 
government the Austrians, advancing from Ferrara and 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 131 

Modena, had taken Bologna and Ancona. Spain had 
landed troops in Naples, to keep the subjects of King 
Bomba quiet, while he himself, with an army of ten thou- 
sand men, advanced towards Rome. The Neapolitans had 
reached Albano when Garibaldi, with four thousand light 
horse, rode secretly from Rome to meet him and surprise 
him. The legionaries rode on South American saddles ; 
the back of each could unroll, and form a small tent, which 
at night was sufficient for its owner's protection. 

On May 8, the four thousand encountered Ferdinand's 
ten thousand troops. The rout of the Neapolitans was 
complete. " Not a Neapolitan soldier," wrote Daverio, 
chief of Garibaldi's staff, " is to be found on the soil of the 
Roman Republic, and the King has gone back to Gaeta, 
to pour his sorrows into the heart of the Pope." This 
success, however, nearly cost Italy dear, for Garibaldi was 
wounded in the hand and the foot. 

The chief of the staff was mistaken on one point. Ferdi- 
nand had not gone further than Velletri, where he claimed 
that the battle of Palestrina was his victory, not his defeat, 
and ordered a Te Deum to be sung in Naples. 

Garibaldi returned to Rome after this battle, fearing a 
surprise on the part of the French. It has never been ex- 
plained why the Roman Republic chose this moment to 
displace its victorious general, and to give the chief com- 
mand of its forces to an obscure soldier, General Roselli. 
Perhaps the extreme party in Rome were growing jealous 
of Garibaldi's influence and popularity. Perhaps his known 
opposition to Mazzini on the subject of the dependence to 
be placed upon French faith, was the cause of it. At any 
rate he accepted his new position without remonstrance, 
saying, " Whoever gives me a chance of fighting, if only as 
a common soldier against the enemies of my country, him 
will I thank." But the remembrance of this slight rankled 
in his breast to the day of his death, — though, as he was 
consulted by Roselli on important occasions, he remained 
virtually, though not in rank, commander in chief. 

On May 16 Garibaldi marched with ten thousand men 



132 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

against the Neapolitans at Velletri. This time their defeat 
was so decisive that even King Bomba could advance no 
claim to victory. He only took credit to himself for un- 
exampled rapidity in his retreat. 

Garibaldi was about to pursue his success and march 
on Naples, when he was hurriedly summoned back to 
Rome. 

When the news of Oudinot's repulse before the walls of 
Rome reached Paris, intense was the indignation and ex- 
citement of the French. Bitter disputes arose in the 
Chamber as to the wisdom of the expedition, but there was 
but one feeling among Frenchmen, viz., that they would 
not quietly accept defeat. Defeat marred the prestige of 
the new President and his party ; the triumph of a republic 
under the rule of Mazzini would strengthen the Red Repub- 
lican party in France. AC de Lesseps (son of a gentleman 
who had been French Consul-General in Egypt in the days 
of Mehemet AH) was sent at once to Rome as Envoy 
Extraordinary, not to the triumvirs, but to the Roman 
Republic. His instructions were vague ; they amounted to 
a direction to do the best he could. The real object of 
his mission has always been supposed to have been to gain 
time for reinforcements to reach General Oudinot. Maz- 
zini, however, who believed himself well informed as to the 
secret politics of the French Republicans, daily expected 
some new revolution, or emeute, in Paris which might 
overthrow Louis Napoleon, and place Ledru-Rollin in the 
Presidential chair. His first interview with de Lesseps was 
somewhat undiplomatic, but dramatic and singular. 

Mazzini was lodged in the Palace of the Consulta, to 
which de Lesseps repaired secretly at dead of night. 

■• The doors of the Palace seem to have been left open. 
There were guards, but they were all asleep. The French 
diplomatist traversed the long suite of splendid apartments 
opening into each other without corridors until he reached the 
simply furnished room where, on an iron bedstead. Mazzini 
slept. De Lesseps watched him sleeping, fascinated by the 
beauty of his head as it lay in repose. He still looked very 
young. though there was hardly a State in Europe where he was 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 33 

not proscribed. When de Lesseps had gazed his fill, he called 
1 Mazzini! Mazzini ! ' The triumvir awoke, sat up, and asked 
if he had come to assassinate him ! De Lesseps told him his 
name, and a long conversation followed. One thing, at least, 
that de Lesseps said in this interview was strictly true, namely, 
that Mazzini must not count on French republican soldiers 
objecting to fire on republicans. • The French soldier would 
burn down the cottage of his mother if ordered to do so.' The 
discipline of a great army is proof against politics." 

De Lesseps believed his steps to be dogged by a French 
ex-convict, probably with a view to his assassination. He 
complained of this to Mazzini, who said he could do noth- 
ing. Then de Lesseps had recourse to Ciceruacchio, who 
guaranteed his safety. 

This interview between Mazzini and the future engineer 
of the Suez Canal took place in one of the first nights of 
the month of June. Very soon after, de Lesseps made an 
agreement with the Roman government, the text of which 
was as* follows : — 

" I. The help of France is guaranteed to the populations of 
the Roman States. They consider the French army a friendly 
army which comes to aid in the defence of their country. 

" II. In accord with the Roman government, and without 
mixing itself up in any way with the government of the country, 
the French army will take such exterior quarters as may be 
convenient, as well for the defence of the country as for the 
health of the troops. Communications shall be free. 

" III. The French government guarantees against all foreign 
invasion the territories occupied by its troops. 

" IV. It is agreed that the present compromise must be sub- 
mitted to the ratification of the French Republic. 

"V. In no case can the effects of the present agreement 
cease until fifteen days after the communication of the non- 
arrival of the ratification." 

As, by article IV.. it was agreed that the present com- 
promise should be subject to the ratification of the French 
Republic, de Lesseps sent it off at once to Paris, and sub- 
mitted it in the meantime to the approval of General 
Oudinot. 



134 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The general absolutely refused to agree to, or to be 
bound by, these conditions. To attack and take Rome was 
for him a point of honor. Besides, he had received secret 
instructions from Louis Napoleon, who had written : " Our 
soldiers have been received as enemies. Our military 
honor is at stake ; I shall not suffer it to be assailed. Re- 
inforcements shall not be wanting to you." 

M. de Lesseps, who had been much pleased with himself 
for the success of his diplomacy, hastened to Paris in great 
excitement, assuring Mazzini that all could be arranged, — 
he had not a doubt of the acceptance of his terms of paci- 
fication. The answer came, however, in the person of M. 
de Courcelles, who was sent by the French government to 
disavow the proceedings of M. de Lesseps, " who had 
exceeded his instructions." 

Then General Oudinot gave notice of the cessation of 
the armistice, and that he would again attack the city. 
"Only," he added, "with a view of giving our fellow- 
countrymen who are desirous of quitting Rome, the means 
of doing so with ease, 1 shall, at the request of the French 
embassy, postpone my attack on the Piazza till Monday 
morning." 

But very early Sunday, when the soldiers and citizens of 
Rome were asleep, the French, stealing gently up to the 
Roman outposts, suddenly surrounded two of them and took 
the men, stationed by Garibaldi to defend them, prisoners. 
The Romans retook these outposts, which commanded the 
gate of San Pancrazio, but they were soon after lost again. 
The besiegers had now thirty-five thousand men; the 
Romans nineteen thousand. 

General Oudinot drew his troops closer and closer round 
the doomed city. He bombarded it day and night. One 
night one hundred and fifty bombs fell within the walls. 
Many noble buildings were shattered, many works of art 
destroyed. Shells fell even into the hospitals, where French 
and Roman soldiers alike were cared for. 

The feast on St. Peter's day was celebrated according to 
custom by the illumination of his Cathedral, the flag of 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 135 

Italy flying from the summit, in the midst of a tremendous 
thunderstorm, and still the fighting, bombarding, and de- 
struction went fiercely on. All knew that it was no use. 
Much of the noblest blood of Young Italy had been spent 
in that week's fighting, but still Mazzini urged his Romans 
to fight on. His zeal had become fanaticism. 

" I feel profoundly for Mazzini," wrote Margaret Fuller; "he 
has become the inspiring soul of his people. He saw Rome, to 
which all his hopes through life tended, for the first time as a 
Roman citizen — and was to become in a few days its ruler. 
He has animated her, he sustains her to a glorious effort, which, 
if it fails this time, will not in the end. His country will be 
free. Yet to me it would be so dreadful to cause all this blood- 
shed, to dig the graves of these martyrs ! Then Rome is being 
destroyed; her glorious oaks, her villas, haunts of sacred beauty 
that seemed the possession of the world forever, — the villa of 
Raphael, the villa of Albani, home of Winckelmann and the 
best expression of the ideal of modern Rome, and so many 
other sanctuaries of beauty, — all must perish lest a foe should 
level his musket from their shelter, /could not — could not / . . . 
Oh ! Rome, my country ! — could I imagine that what I held 
dear was to heap such desolation on thy head ! . . . I did not 
see Mazzini during the last two weeks of the republic. When 
the French entered, he walked about the streets to see how the 
people bore themselves, and then went to the house of a friend. 
In the upper chamber of a poor house I found him. He had 
borne a fearful responsibility; he had let his dearest friends 
perish. In two short months he had grown old ; all the vital 
juices seemed exhausted ; his eyes were all bloodshot, his skin 
orange ; flesh he had none ; his hair was mixed with white ; his 
hand was painful to the touch ; yet he had never flinched, never 
quailed, but protested in the last hour against surrender. Sweet 
and calm, but full of a more fiery purpose than ever ; in him I 
revered the hero, and owned myself not of that mould." 

On the morning of June 30, when the bombardment had 
lasted a week, Garibaldi was sent for by the Assembly. He 
was called from the midst of a melee where he had been 
dealing blows right and left as if possessed by some super- 
natural power. Those around him said it was impossible 
he could much longer have escaped death had it not been 
for the message from the Assembly. 



136 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

•• When he appeared at the door of the Chamber the deputies 
rose and burst into wild applause. He seemed puzzled, but 
looking down upon himself he saw the explanation. He was 
covered with blood, his clothes were honeycombed by balls and 
bayonet thrusts. His sabre was so bent with striking that it 
would not go more than half way into its sheath. What the 
Assembly wanted to know was whether the defence could be 
prolonged. Garibaldi had only to say that it could not. They 
voted, therefore, the following decree : — 'In the name of God 
and of the People, the Roman Constituent Assembly discon- 
tinues a defence that has become impossible, and remains at its 
post.' At its post it remained till the French soldiers entered 
the Capitol where it sat, when, yielding to brute force, the depu- 
ties dispersed. Mazzini, who would have resisted still, when all 
resistance was impossible, wandered openly about the city as in 
a dream. After a week his friends induced him to leave Rome 
with an English passport." 

Oudinot did little in the way of vengeance. That was 
reserved for the Papal authorities when, some months later, 
they returned to Rome. In 185 1 a Conservative newspaper 
in Florence published the statistics of the victims. Two 
hundred and thirty people were executed during the first 
two years after the Pope's return. It is said that he laid 
each death-warrant at the foot of a cross, and, if nothing 
happened to indicate the clemency of the Almighty, it was 
signed. Many more died in the crowded prisons, where 
eight thousand prisoners were huddled together. The 
number of exiles was over twenty thousand, including most 
of the leaders and others who fled through fear of being 
prosecuted. 

Margaret Fuller wrote : — 

' ; I cannot tell you what I endured in leaving Rome : aban- 
doning the wounded soldiers : knowing that there is no provision 
made for them when they rise from the beds upon which they have 
been thrown by a noble courage, and where they have suffered 
with a noble patience. Some of the poorer men. who are bereft 
even of the right arm — one having lost both the right arm and 
the right leg — I could have provided for w r ith a small sum. 
Could I have sold my hair, or blood from my arm I would have 
done it. Had any of the rich Americans remained in Rome 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 



m 



they would have given it to me; they helped nobly at first in the 
service of the hospitals when there was far less need, but they 
had all gone. What would I have given that I could have 
spoken to one of the Lawrences or the Phillipses ; they could 
and would have saved the misery. These poor men are left 
helpless in the power of a mean and vindictive foe." 

Rome had fallen ; Charles Albert had fallen ; Italy had 
fallen, — all Italy save Venice ; and she fell a few weeks 
later. Austrian despotism ruled Italy from the Alps to the 
extremity of the peninsula. The independence of Italy 
seemed a lost cause. Prayers, sacrifices, and blood had 
apparently failed to save her. All things had turned out as 
those who prayed and suffered hoped they would not do. 
Short-sighted are we mortals, who " see not the bright light 
that is behind the clouds" — who do not realize that all 
these prayers and sufferings help on the desired end. 

Pride in their own brave struggle raised Italians in their 
own eyes, and drew to them the sympathy of other nations. 
The taunt Les Italiens ne se battent pas was disproved. 
By the woes and disappointments of 1848 and 1849, Ital- 
ians were ripening for the coming deliverance. As Mr. 
Pro by n says : — 

" So fell Rome ; her soldiers fighting to the last extremity ; 
her people vying with each other in maintaining the glorious 
but unequal struggle ; her rulers firmly rejecting every dishonor- 
able compromise or proposal; and, as firmly, declaring that 
Italians, and Italians only, had a right to decide what should or 
should not be the government under which they would live. 
Assuredly such men are rightly held to have deserved well of 
their country." 

I have sometimes thought that I could understand Gari- 
baldi, from having known and loved and honored a man of 
his own stamp, — a man with the heart of a little child, a man 
whose judgment followed the lead of his quick sympathies, 
a man of eagerness, vehemence, and energy, who could 
accomplish anything, provided a calmer mind gave his 
energy direction, or, rather, turned to use whatever it. 
effected. Like Garibaldi, he was a man of the sea ; a man 



138 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

who had " seen cities and men " ; a man of varied informa- 
tion, acquired by himself; who, while overflowing with the 
milk of lovingkindness, both for man and beast, was never- 
theless the "good hater" whom Dr. Johnson loved. But all 
his hatreds were impersonal. Brought into contact with any 
man's good qualities, he at once loved him ; but tyranny, 
meanness, cruelty, and oppression were abhorrent to his 
very soul. Like Garibaldi, no thought of himself seemed 
to have any influence on his plans or his decisions. He 
was lavish of money when he had it, but spent it all on 
others. He was a man whom those who loved him most 
and knew him best, always held to be unfitted for any posi- 
tion which involved complicated responsibility. He was 
beloved by all who knew him ; but those who served under 
him adored him most. He was influenced by every man 
who made an appeal to his noble impulses. Of " sober 
judgment " he had none. 

Giuseppe (or Joseph) Garibaldi was born in Nice in the 
year 1807. He was the son of a small trader who owned a 
coasting vessel. His ancestors had been seafaring men 
from generation to generation. The name of Garibaldi 
was inscribed on the Golden Book of the Old Republic of 
Genoa, but it was also borne by humble fishermen. 

The father and mother of the future hero and patriot 
were pious, industrious, but unthrifty, people ; who brought 
up a large family in a small way. Their son in after years 
held them to have been " priest-ridden." They had in- 
tended to devote him to the service of the Church, thinking 
him too frail for active occupation, but all his bent was for 
the sea. He had one teacher, a priest, whom he did not 
like, — and another, a civilian, who gave him a taste for 
study. He loved books, was a good classical scholar, and 
in after years acquired the various European languages, 
learning them by use and by experience, rather than with 
dictionaries and grammars. He was a splendid swimmer, 
and on more than one occasion, while still a lad, distin- 
guished himself by saving men from drowning. 

At the age of twenty- one he found himself mate on board 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 39 

a brig bound for the Black Sea. He had adventures enough 
upon this voyage to supply materials for the most sensa- 
tional of dime novels, but what most concerns us is that a 
member of the new order of " Young Italy," lately founded 
by Mazzini, took him in hand at Taganrog, on the Sea of 
Azof, and filled his heart with that enthusiasm for Italian 
independence which was the aim and glory of his life in 
days of suffering and days of honor. 

On his return to Italy he made the acquaintance of Maz- 
zini, who extended over him that charm of personal influ- 
ence which he seems to have done over all who approached 
him. The result was that Garibaldi took part in the ill- 
advised invasion of Piedmont from Switzerland, and also in 
a conspiracy which was to effect a revolutionary rising in 
Genoa. Both failed. Garibaldi earned sentence of death 
from the Piedmontese government, and quitted Italy in 
1836 for South America. 

At Rio Janeiro, by the help of friends, he fitted out a 
small trading vessel, but his temperament was not suited to 
commerce, and he never prospered as a trader. It suited 
him better to enter the service of Don Gonsales, President 
of the Republic of Rio Grande, a province on the left bank 
of the La Plata which had broken off from the empire of 
Brazil. 

For ten years he fought by land and by sea among these 
obscure, turbulent, semi-civilized republics, where he had 
every opportunity to learn leadership in guerilla warfare, 
where he daily ran startling risks, and distinguished him- 
self by deeds of daring. 

No good end seems ever to have been the aim of all this 
warfare ; men fought apparently because they wished to kill 
each other, and Garibaldi made himself a dreaded name as 
the foe of the Brazilians. He had collected a small band 
of Italian exiles, who made him their commander. He 
had also his love-affairs, and married Anita, whose name is 
associated with his in all dangers and sufferings, but who 
survived only for a few weeks the siege of Rome. 

Anita bore him four children during their life together on 



140 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the shores of the La Plata. Menotti, his eldest boy, was 
named after the victim of Francis of Modena ; then there 
was Ricciotti, called after a young man shot with the 
brothers Bandiera ; and there were two daughters, one of 
whom, with her nurse, was burned to death when a baby. 
This loss to the day of his death Garibaldi never ceased to 
lament. The other daughter was Theresita. 

At last he quitted Rio Grande, and went to Monte Video, 
the capital of another republic on the La Plata, sometimes 
called Uruguay, sometimes the Banda Oriental. So long 
as the provinces on the shores of the La Plata were Spanish 
dependencies, Buenos Ayres exercised a sort of supremacy 
over the others. When they achieved their independence, 
Buenos Ayres desired to convert them into a confederacy, 
and to be its head. This federation was bitterly opposed 
by Uruguay with its capital Monte Video, which was also 
the commercial rival of the city of Buenos Ayres. A 
desultory war had been carried on between Uruguay (or 
the Banda Oriental) and Buenos Ayres for several years 
before Garibaldi arrived in South America; at that time 
General Rosas was dictator in Buenos Ayres. 

This is not the place to enter into any account of Rosas, 
or the complicated wars he waged with neighboring repub- 
lics. In 1845 I made my coup d'essai in magazine writing 
by an account in an English review of Rosas, Buenos 
Ayres, and Monte Video. I had a large quantity of excel- 
lent material given me by English naval officers fresh from 
service on the La Plata, and they also directed my attention 
to other documents, which I saw in the British Museum. 
The stories told of the cruelty, brutality, and arrogance of 
Rosas seem so incredible, that of late years they are sup- 
posed to be exaggerations. I can only say I found them 
corroborated by reliable men, Englishmen and Frenchmen, 
officers and residents. I will offer one extract by way of 
specimen from a pamphlet by a French officer. 

" Heads of respectable citizens of Buenos Ayres have heen 
rolled about in carts, or displayed on butchers' stalls ; nay, 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. I4I 

more, there was an official dispute with a French admiral, 
invested with high diplomatic authority, to decide whether one 
of these heads thus cut off was a French head or a Spanish one. 
That of Zelarayan, brought from the southern frontier, was ex- 
posed in Rosas' drawing-room; and Lucian Manella, his brother- 
in-law and a general, dared to insult Mr. Mandeville, the English 
Minister by showing him the salted ears of Colonel Borda, sent 
from Tucuman by D. Manuel Oribe." 

This Oribe had been at one time President of Monte 
Video. General Riviera was his rival. On Riviera's obtain- 
ing the Presidential office, Oribe went over to Rosas, and 
joined him in invading Uruguay. The savagery of this war 
was horrible. Garibaldi, with his Italian legion and his 
friend Azani, joined the forces of President Riviera, though 
I do not remember to have seen his name in any of the 
documents that I consulted. 

England and France were appealed to by Riviera, and 
joined to put a stop to so horrible a war. Rosas was driven 
into exile, Uruguay became an independent State, and 
Buenos Ayres was left to become the chief city and province 
of the Argentine Republic. I am unable to say how many 
revolutions it has undergone since that day, together with 
wars, triumphs, and reverses, — financial and otherwise. 

Every mail had brought to Monte Video news of stirring 
events in Italy. Garibaldi, like all others, hailed with 
delight the liberal views attributed to Pio Nono, and, to- 
gether with his friend Azani, he addressed to him a letter 
in which they offered him their own services, and those of 
their Italian legion. 

"If, then," the letter ran, "to-day our arms, which are not 
strangers to fighting, are acceptable to your Holiness, we need 
not say how willingly we shall offer them in the service of one 
who has done so much for our country and our church. We 
shall count ourselves happy if we can but come to aid Pio Nono 
in his work of redemption, we and our companions, for whose 
concurrence we give our word, and we shall consider ourselves 
privileged if we are allowed to show our devotedness by shedding 
our blood. . . . There remains for us but to beg your illus- 
trious and venerable Highness to forgive us for thus troubling 



142 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

you, and to accept the expression of the deep esteem and 
unbounded respect with which we subscribe ourselves your 
devoted servants, " G. Garibaldi. 

"F, Azani.'' 

The Pope returned no answer, and the aspiring patriots 
were deeply disappointed. They, however, proceeded to 
organize an expedition to assist the cause of Italy. The 
Italian legion would not as a body volunteer. The leaders 
secured only eighty-five men, and of these, twenty-nine 
deserted. 

Garibaldi, with Anita and their children, accompanied by 
Azani, who was slowly dying of consumption, embarked on 
Garibaldi's little ship, the " Esperanza," for the Mediter- 
ranean. On touching at Alicante, great news met them. 
They heard that Charles Albert had granted a Constitution 
to Piedmont, and was in arms against Austria ; that Turin 
was wild with joy ; that the cry of Evviva la casa di 
Savoja ! was ringing through Northern Italy. There was 
news, too, of the Revolution in France ; of the flight of 
Metternich from Vienna ; of revolt in Hungary ; of insur- 
rection in Berlin. Even Ferdinand of Naples had been 
forced to give his people a Constitution. 

Garibaldi hoisted the Italian flag upon his little schooner. 
Anita made it out of half a counterpane, a red shirt, and a 
bit of old green uniform, and the "Esperanza" sailed gaily 
into Nice. There Garibaldi's old mother, though she wel- 
comed her son, was by no means pleased with her new 
daughter-in-law. The so-called marriage of Garibaldi and 
Anita had been very irregular. The old lady insisted on a 
proper marriage ceremony ; but she never became reconciled 
to the younger woman. 

Azani died soon after they landed. His death was a 
great sorrow to Garibaldi. But in May all the glorious 
news that they had heard at Alicante seemed clouded with 
disaster. Pio Nono had blighted the hopes of his enthusi- 
astic friends. The King of Naples had forsworn himself, and 
ordered his troops to return home. Charles Albert had 
been left alone to fight the Austrians, and Mazzini was using 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 43 

his utmost efforts to create new difficulties for him by 
spreading disaffection in Piedmont, decrying constitutional 
government, and advocating republicanism. 

It was at this time that Garibaldi, though still under sen- 
tence of death, requested an interview with the King of 
Piedmont. Charles Albert received him cordially, but 
replied, in answer to his offers of service, that he must 
consult his ministers. Garibaldi's former association with 
Mazzini probably made the King distrustful. 

Considering Charles Albert's answer a repulse, Garibaldi 
went into Tuscany, and there began to organize an inde- 
pendent corps. Radetzky, subsequently speaking to a 
Piedmontese about the war, said frankly : " The man of all 
others who could have served your cause the best you 
refused to recognize." And what was worse, the seeming 
slight threw Garibaldi back into the ranks of the radically 
revolutionary party. 

Garibaldi raised a large body of volunteers in Tuscany. 
They were no sooner collected than he received a summons 
from the Milanese to help them to defend their city, Charles 
Albert's army having been forced to retreat into Piedmont 
after the lost battle of Custozza. 

Mazzini, as we have seen from his conduct when a 
Roman triumvir, did not adopt the principle of reculer 
pour mieux sauter. He and his followers shouted loudly 
Traitor! against the King. D' Azeglio said of this crisis: 
" Since Lombardy and Venice would not unite, I told the 
King that his duty, the good of Italy, the welfare of the 
cause, required that he should retreat to Piedmont and 
defend it." 

" But,'' says Mr. Bent, " Charles Albert, like Garibaldi, first 
went to the defence of Milan, and the Milanese, urged on by 
the disaffected party within their walls, received him with stones 
and curses. From the agents of Mazzini, the King, who had 
been fighting for the cause of Italy, fled for his very life." 

Before Garibaldi could reach Milan, news came to him 
of the conclusion of an armistice between the King of 



144 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Piedmont and the Austrians, and, deeply indignant, he 
turned aside into the mountains, hoping to carry on a 
guerilla warfare against the foreigners and to be ready for 
the next emergency. 

His band of volunteers dwindled to two hundred and 
fifty, with whom, rejecting an offer from Charles Albert of a 
high post in the Sardinian army, which was being reorgan- 
ized, he started for Venice, to assist Manin. At Ravenna, 
however, news reached him which turned his steps towards 
Rome. How he arrived there, and what he did there, has 
been told already. A few words must be said of what 
befell him and the volunteers, now amounting to three 
thousand, with whom, on July 2, 1849, he quitted the 
defeated and despairing city. 

The capitulation had been signed, and next day the 
French were to make their entry. Then Garibaldi, having 
assembled all troops and volunteers in Rome in the great 
square before St. Peter's, thus addressed them : " Soldiers ! 
that which I have to offer you is this : hunger, thirst, cold, 
and heat ; no pay, no barracks, no rations, but frequent 
alarms, forced marches, charges at the point of the bayonet. 
Whoever loves our country and glory may follow me ! " 

His design was to make his way into Tuscany, where he 
hoped to rouse the slumbering spirit of the people. Anita, 
though she was near her confinement, and little in a state 
to travel, insisted on sharing danger at his side. Ciceru- 
acchio and his two sons joined him, almost all the officers 
of his legion, and Ugo Bassi, the monk, his chaplain and 
fast friend. Garibaldi took a small sum from the Treasury 
to support his troops till they should be out of the Roman 
States, but to supply his own wants and those of Anita, he 
sold his watch. His faithful negro servant, who had fol- 
lowed him from Monte Video, had been shot through the 
brain not many days before. 

Tuscany proved unwilling to welcome them, though for 
the moment she was a republic, but an Austrian army was 
on the frontier ready to march into the duchy on any pre- 
text or provocation. Then Garibaldi hoped he might reach 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 45 

Venice, but he was hotly pursued by the Austrians over the 
Apennines, and at last decided to take refuge in the little 
mountain republic of San Marino and there disband his 
men. San Marino is not far distant from Rimini, and not 
many leagues from the Adriatic Sea. It has only seven 
thousand inhabitants, and, of course, would have been unable 
to resist Austrian invasion. The authorities sent food to 
Garibaldi's men, and offered to receive them if they would 
disarm, and enter their republic not as soldiers but as 
refugees. This offer was accepted, and in the end each man 
was furnished with a passport, and a small sum of money to 
pay his way to his home. The passports, however, did not 
always meet with respect. 

Garibaldi addressed his men for the last time, and then 
posted on the church door a proclamation. 

" Soldiers ! We have arrived in a land of refuge ; we must 
maintain an irreproachable conduct towards our generous hosts, 
since it will gain for us the respect due to our misfortunes. 
From the present moment I release all my companions in arms 
from every engagement, leaving them free to re-enter private 
life. But, I would remind you, it is better to die than to live as 
slaves to a foreigner. " Garibaldi." 

The next night, Garibaldi, finding that his presence made 
it probable that less favorable terms of capitulation would 
be granted by the Austrians to his followers, left San Marino 
secretly by night, and made his way to a little port on the 
shore of the Adriatic. He hoped to reach Venice by boat. 
He was accompanied by Anita, Bassi, Ciceruacchio and his 
younger son (the other had been killed a few days pre- 
viously) , and a party of officers. 

They procured thirteen fishing boats, and started for 
Venice. But a storm arose. Some of the boats were cap- 
tured by Austrian cruisers, and four were forced back to 
land. The party, on landing, separated, for the Austrians 
were in close pursuit. The remainder of the story shall be 
related as Mr. Theodore Bent has told it in his " Life of 
Garibaldi " : — 

10 



146 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

" The shore where the four boats put in was swarming with 
Austrian scouts, sent to trace the fugitives. Anita was lying a 
little way off the shore, concealed in a corn-field, her head rest- 
ing on her husband's knee. Leggiero, an old comrade of Gari- 
baldi's in South America, was their only companion. He kept 
guard over them, so as to give notice if he saw any white-coated 
Austrians lurking near. Garibaldi, stricken with grief, watched 
the gradual ebbing away of that life whose every hope and joy 
had been so closely bound up with his own. . . . Later in the 
day. when the Austrians had disappeared, some peasants, struck 
by the piteous sight of the husband bearing his sick wife in his 
arms, yielded to his entreaties to fetch medical aid, brought a 
cart on which the dying woman was placed, and, carried over 
rocks and by-paths (for the Austrians were upon the roads), 
they reached at last the estate of the Marquis Guiccioli. Gari- 
baldi then carried Anita to a peasant's cottage, where a bed 
was hastily prepared, and no sooner was Anita placed thereon, 
than she expired, leaning on Garibaldi's arm. Stricken by so 
great a bereavement, Garibaldi, caring not what his own fate 
might be, could scarcely be roused to understand that the Au- 
strians were close upon him. With a supreme effort he tore 
himself from the remains of her who had loved him but too 
faithfully, and with weary step and aching heart pursued his 
flight. The peasant fulfilled a promise Garibaldi exacted from 
him of burying Anita under the shade of the pine groves, but 
unfortunately her little dog discovered the remains of his mis- 
tress, scarcely cold, under the newly turned sod, and revealed 
the place to the Austrians. The peasant was arrested for hav- 
ing harbored rebels." 

Finally Garibaldi and his friend Leggiero, by mountain 
passes and through many dangers, reached Ravenna : 
thence, finding there was no chance of reaching Venice, and 
no hope of a rising in Tuscany, they contrived to reach 
Spezia, and on September 6, after two months of wander- 
ing, Garibaldi and his companions arrived in the kingdom of 
Charles Albert and presented themselves at Genoa to Gen- 
eral La Marmora, who received them kindly, though he 
lodged them in prison. They were held to be dangerous 
guests in the present position of Piedmont, and after a short 
time, during which Garibaldi paid by permission a visit to 
his aged mother and three children at Nice, he was set at 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 47 

liberty, but courteously requested to leave Italy. He passed 
over to Sardinia, where he wandered in the mountains, and 
was hidden for a while on the rocky island of Caprera, his 
future home. Eventually he sailed for New York from Liv- 
erpool. In New York he obtained employment from a tal- 
low-chandler, and occupied himself for eighteen months in 
making candles, without, however, he tells us, making much 
proficiency in the business. 

In 1852, New York was a haven of refuge for revolution- 
ists whose hopes had set in dark clouds of disappointment. 
Ledru-Rollin came, and Louis Blanc, and many others, 
Frenchmen and Italians, who thought it no shame to en- 
gage in any employments that would relieve them from the 
necessity of receiving charity. 

At the end of eighteen months of New York life, Gari- 
baldi went to Peru, and commanded trading vessels both on 
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. At last, when the Pied- 
montese government became more settled, and the flag of 
Italy took part with the flags of France and England in the 
Crimean war, Garibaldi came back to his own land. With 
such money as he had made in his trading expeditions, he 
made a home for himself among the rocks of Caprera. 

His extreme republicanism had been modified by his ex- 
periences, and his advice to his followers and fellow-patriots 
was now : " Look to Piedmont as the hope and example of 
Italy." 

A few words must be said of the monk Ugo Bassi — of 
whom some one has remarked that he seemed to be com- 
pounded of St. Francis of Assisi and Savonarola. In his 
early career he had been a hero in Sicily, risking his life 
freely among those stricken by the cholera, and preaching 
sermons which stirred the very hearts of his hearers. An 
enthusiast for Italian independence, a believer in Pio Nono, 
who had declared him to be a man after his own heart, his 
hopes sank after the Pope's flight to Gaeta, and he joined 
Garibaldi's legion at Rieti, before it marched to Rome. In 
every encounter he rode foremost, often on a fiery horse, in 
uniform, but with the cross of his order suspended from his 



1 43 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

neck, and with no weapon bat his crucifix. His mission 
was to animate his men, to shrive the dying, or bear 
wounded men ( whom he often carried upon his horse) out 
of reach of the enemy. When his beloved leader quitted 
San Marino he wis in the boat with him and Anita, but he 
quitted them when the part}-, rescued from the tempest, 
scattered on reaching shore. Ciceruacchio and his remain- 
ing son went into the great pine woods round Ravenna. 
The fate that befell them was long a myster . 5:id:ers in 
the Crimean war had a report that Ciceruacchio had been 
seen dealing out wine to the Sardinian soldiers. But sub- 
sequently — long after — it came to be believed that Cice- 
ruacchio and his boy, together with seven other fugitives, 
one of whom was a priest from Genoa, had been captured 
and summarily shot, by an Austrian lieutenant in command 
of a scouting party of Croats. The story ran that the lad 
stirred after he was thought dead, and another bulle: 
sent through his body. 

Bassi and a wounded officer, Livraghi, had almost reached 
safet\', when, utterly exhausted, they paused for a little rest. 
They were captured, and handed over to the Croats, who 
carried them to Bologna, Bassi's native place, heavily chained. 
On the wall of his prison at Commachio, Bassi drew a pic- 
ture of Christ upon the cross, writing beneath it : — 

w Ugo Bassi here sufferti 5: me what glad in spirit through 
the knowledge that he had committed no crime. Livraghi. a 
captain of Garibaldi, was here too. and shared in everything." 

Livraghi was a Lombard, and had served in the Austrian 
army, but there was no case against Bassi : not even arms 
were found on him, only his crucifix, his breviary, and a 
leather case containing the last cantos of a poem he was 
writing, " La Croce Vincitrice." But many Italian priest- 
had joined the revolutionists, and it was determined to 
make him an example. It is said that Pope Pius, who had 
loved him, was much affected by his death. 

Twelve priests had been called to sign his death-warrant, 
as his execution seemed to be an affair of the Church. 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 1 49 

They were all Austrian military chaplains, but three of them, 
Hungarians, refused to sign. 

On August 9, the execution took place, but it is said that 
Bedini, the papal legate at Bologna, gave orders that first 
Bassi, having been a priest, should be "desecrated," by 
his head, that had been tonsured, being flayed, and also the 
hand which had held the consecrated wafer. This is not in 
all accounts of Bassi's death. Let us hope it may not be 
true. 

The officer told off to give the word of command to the 
firing party could not utter it. Another officer took his 
place, but Bassi, raising his eyes to Heaven, said calmly : 
" I am ready," and in a moment he fell dead. 

Ten years later, Garibaldi, when Central Italy was a free 
kingdom, visited Bassi's grave in the great pine woods of 
Ravenna, immortalized by their connection with Dante and 
Lord Byron ; there, too, was the grave of Anita. Her 
body had been removed to a little chapel in the neighbor- 
hood of the hut where she died. 

The bones of Ciceruacchio (Angelo Brunetti by name) 
and those of his son 5 or what are supposed to have been 
theirs, were removed to Rome, with every mark of honor 
and affection. They now rest on the Janiculum, with the 
Eternal City lying at its feet, and all around a glorious 
view of the Campagna. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

KOSSUTH. 

r "PHE struggle for independence in Hungary, which went 
-*- on in the years 1848 and 1849, simultaneously with the 
effort made in Lombardy and Venetia to throw off the Aus- 
trian yoke, may not, a priori, seem to belong to the history 
of Italy, and yet it is so closely connected with it that I 
feel myself excused for interrupting the main narrative by 
interpolating it here. 

The story of the emancipation of Italy from Austria 
would be unintelligible without an account of the battle of 
Sadowa, and the causes that led to it in 1866 ; and to 
understand Sadowa, we need to know what events distracted 
the Austrian Emperor's dominions eighteen years before, 
when the Emperor Nicholas sent armies to his assistance in 
Hungary, and offered to dispatch other troops into Lom- 
bardy to overwhelm Charles Albert. This offer, however, 
was declined. Old Marshal Radetzky considered himself 
quite equal to the task, and, as we have seen, he successfully 
accomplished it. 

A brief biography of Louis Kossuth, probably the bright- 
est comet of our nineteenth century, will afford us, I think, 
the best means of learning all we may here need to know 
of the abortive attempt at a Hungarian revolution. 

The life of Kossuth was almost coeval with that of the 
nineteenth century. He was born in 1802. The years in 
which his name became a household word throughout 
Europe and America were in the middle of the century, 
and his death took place almost at its close. His father was 
a Magyar nobleman of small estate, and he was a Protes- 




LOUIS KOSSUTH. 



KOSSUTH. 1 5 I 

tant. Young Louis graduated at a Calvinist college when 
he was seventeen, and at once commenced the study of 
law. 

He was twenty-nine when the cholera, which spread over 
Christendom in 1831, broke out in Hungary, and, as usual, 
the peasantry attributed the pestilence to the Jews and to 
the nobles. It was then that Kossuth came forward into 
public sight. Up to that time he had chiefly distinguished 
himself in field sports. But such sports make the nobleman 
and the peasant personally acquainted. Kossuth knew the 
class he had to deal with, — the people whose hearts he 
was to touch by burning and persuasive words. Wherever 
the cholera raged in its worst form, he appeared to calm 
the fears and combat the delusions of the stricken people. 

A year later he was sent to the Hungarian Diet by some 
princess as her proxy, having liberty to vote, but not to 
address the assembly. There, as he sat silent, listening to 
the debates, there came to him the idea of reporting them. 
It was against law and custom to print such reports, but 
Kossuth wrote them out with his own hand, and, after the 
manner of the ancient news-letters in England, they were 
read aloud in clubs and public places throughout the towns 
and villages of Hungary. When the labor of writing from 
sixty to eighty such letters a week became too great, Kos- 
suth set up a lithographic press. This was promptly sup- 
pressed by the government. He continued his paper, 
therefore, in manuscript, and, as the use of the post-office 
was denied him, its circulation was intrusted to colporteurs. 
The paper soon became of great national importance, rous- 
ing political discussion and forming public sentiment, espe- 
cially on the question of the abolition of serfdom. It 
created a national public opinion where, up to that time, 
public opinion had been timid and local. 

The Austrian government, becoming alarmed at this 
spread of national feeling in Hungary, suppressed the paper, 
and ordered the arrest of Kossuth, although, being a Hun- 
garian nobleman, he could not be legally imprisoned until 
he had been convicted of crime. In spite of this, he 



152 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

was incarcerated without trial, and when, in 1839, he was 
at last tried, he was condemned to a further period of 
imprisonment. 

Having thus brought the biography of Kossuth to the 
time when he became dimly visible to the public eye, I 
will offer some account of Hungary, that ancient Dacia 
whence came the bravest gladiators of imperial Rome. 
Long before Rome became imperial, however, barbaric 
tribes had penetrated into the dense forests of this region, 
and, under the name of Gauls, swept down on Greece, 
pillaged its Temple of Delphos, and, afterwards invading 
Italy, outraged the Conscript Fathers in Rome. 

About the time of the Christian era, Pannonia was acfded 
to the Roman Empire, and Dacia about a century later. As 
soon as Rome had possession of these provinces civilization 
set in. Magnificent roads and aqueducts were constructed, 
the forests were cut down, agriculture was introduced, and 
Roman military colonies were planted in suitable places. 
There is still standing part of a magnificent bridge built by 
Trajan over the Danube. 

When the Roman Empire fell, and the Roman legions 
were withdrawn from the remote provinces, all kinds of 
races poured into Dacia, among them Goths and Visigoths. 
These were converted to Christianity not many years after 
their settlement in their new quarters, and after Christianity 
came medieval civilization, which, however, was very far be- 
hind that which had prevailed in Dacia during the palmy 
days of its occupation by the Romans. 

Next came the Huns, from the borders of far-off China, 
under their great king, Attila, with his Mongolian features. 
He threatened Constantinople, and he sacked Rome. He 
was called The Scourge of God. After thoroughly humbling 
the Romans, he required them to send ambassadors to him 
at his residence in a forest on the frontier of Poland. These 
ambassadors kept a minute journal of all they saw during 
their journey, and at the intrenched camp where Attila held 
court, surrounded by his Huns. 

The descendants of the Roman militarv colonists called 



KOSSUTH. 1 5 3 

themselves Roumans. The Huns, although they gave their 
name to Hungary, soon sank into an inferior race. Never- 
theless, a second detachment of them, known in history as 
Avars, spread terror at one time all over Germany, and even 
threatened Belgium. These Avars were a handsome people 
of light complexion, bearing little personal resemblance to 
the Huns. They dressed like that race, however, except 
that they tied their long hair with colored ribbons. 

The Magyars followed the Avars from the plains of Asia 
about the time of Alfred the Great. At first Europeans be- 
lieved them to be the Gog and Magog of prophecy. They 
were of the same blood as the Finns, and a branch of their 
race had settled in Scandinavia. 

The Finns make hardy sailors, and, although they have 
shown no literary development since their settlement in 
Europe, they brought with them one of the world's early 
epics, the " Kalewala," written in a metre, of late years imi- 
tated by Longfellow in " Hiawatha." 

The Magyars were likewise cousins to the Turks. A 
cousinly friendship between Turks and Magyars exists even 
to the present day, and adds to the puzzles and difficulties 
of modern diplomacy in the settlement of the Eastern 
question. 

In the early part of the tenth century, the Magyars were 
nearly as formidable to the broken empire of Charlemagne 
as the Huns under Attila had been to the remnants of the 
mighty empire of Rome. Otho the Great, however, defeated 
them, bearing in his hand the sword of Constantine, and 
spreading the banner of Saint Maurice, besides having with 
him a spear-head, made of four nails of the true Cross, for 
which the Duke of Burgundy had given a province of his 
duchy. The Magyars were driven back into Hungary, 
where they soon began to form a settled government under 
dukes of their own. The chief point in their Constitution, 
if we may so call their unwritten law, was that all Magyars 
governed, and that all men of other races (and there were 
eight or more different races in Hungary) were of no polit- 
ical importance. All great questions were decided by an 



154 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

assembly of Magyars on horseback in the plains near the river 
Theiss, and all Magyars were eligible to take part in these 
deliberations. 

The first great Magyar chief was Arpad. His grandson 
was a Christian, and made great efforts to convert his 
heathen subjects, but this work was not accomplished in his 
reign ; it was, however, in that of his son, St. Stephen, who 
was named Stephen because the first martyr, in a vision, 
before his birth, desired he should bear that name, and pre- 
dicted that he should be numbered among the saints of God. 

The Pope, towards the close of St. Stephen's reign, sent 
him a crown, — since known as the crown of St. Stephen, — 
the most precious possession of the Hungarians to this day. 

All political power, as I have said, was in the hands of 
the Magyars. Their King was elected, and no Magyar was 
bound to obey the sovereign till he had been crowned with 
St. Stephen's crown and had taken an oath to maintain all 
the Magyar's liberties and privileges. 

Besides the King, there was always a sort of sub-king, 
called a Palatine, elected for life. There was a Diet with 
two Chambers, in which only Magyars sat, and the Diet, — 
not the King, — had the privilege of making war or peace. 
There were also county assemblies, which taught men self- 
government ; and thus Hungary and England were the only 
really constitutional monarchies in Europe during the Middle 
Ages. 

The history of Hungary and of its early kings is interest- 
ing and picturesque, but there is no space to tell it here. 
There was a continual struggle going on between the kings 
and magnates, for the latter would never suffer any infringe- 
ment of their privileges, while, of course, the kings were 
always endeavoring to get a little more power. 

At one time, not long after Dante's death, early in the 
fourteenth century, Charles of Anjou was King of Hungary, 
and his connection with Naples involved Hungary in the 
affairs of that unquiet kingdom. When the Ottoman Turks 
came into Europe, the Magyars alternately fraternized with 
them and opposed them. 



KOSSUTH. I 5 5 

From the beginning of their history as a European peo- 
ple the Magyars have had a deep and abiding hatred of all 
Slavonians. The Slavs are of the same race as the Russians. 
They surround Hungary, inhabiting Servia, Croatia, Dalma- 
tia and Bosnia, while they form part of the lower class in 
Roumania and Hungary. 

The Slavs are commonly of the Greek Church, the Mag- 
yars were Roman Catholics, though, when Protestantism 
began to spread, many of them sided with the Reformation. 

The Magyars, being a race of warriors, strongly objected to 
having a female sovereign, but Louis the Great, who had been 
King of both Hungary and Poland, left, in 1389, his Polish 
crown to his daughter Mary, and the Magyars chose her for 
their King, insisting, however, that she should sign herself 
Maria Rex, and not Maria Regina. She married Sigismund, 
King of Bohemia, who afterwards became Emperor of Ger- 
many (the Super-Grammaticam of Mr. Carlyle) . Their only 
child, Elizabeth, married Albert, Archduke of Austria, and by 
this marriage Austria fast acquired an interest in the affairs 
of Hungary. Albert succeeded Sigismund about the year 
1438 as Emperor of Germany, King of Hungary, and King 
of Bohemia. But Albert's reign was short. He left a 
young wife and infant son. It was then that his widow 
Elizabeth, dreading a forced marriage that would impair the 
rights of her little boy, carried him off, and the crown of St. 
Stephen with him. The faithful lady who had charge of both 
left a record of the perils of the journey. The narrative is 
here of the nature of an episode, but as it has really some 
bearing on the history of Kossuth and the Hungarian Revo- 
lution, and as it is extremely interesting and curious, I take 
leave to relate it here. 1 

" Seventy-six years after the presentation by the Pope of a 
crown to St. Stephen another crown was given to the King 
of Hungary by one of the Greek emperors. It was com- 
bined with the more precious crown, whose arches were sur~ 

1 I have not been able to consult the original narrative, and am 
therefore largely indebted to Miss Yonge's " Book of Golden Deeds " 
for an account of the crown, and its adventures. 



156 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

rounded by this golden circlet. The crown was so precious 
on account of the privileges it conferred that it was kept in the 
vaults of a certain strong castle on the Danube, about twelve 
miles from the cities of Buda and Pesth. It was laid in a case 
placed in a chest with many seals, and a seneschal had his bed 
in a chamber where was the door leading to the vault. 

" Now, Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, was at the time of her 
husband's death expecting a new babe, who, she hoped, would 
prove a little king. She was therefore most anxious to avoid 
marrying a certain King of Poland, proposed to her by the mag- 
nates, and was resolved to take all means in her power to prevent 
his being crowned King of Hungary. 

" She took Helen de Kottenner, one of her ladies, into her 
confidence, proposing to her, while the seneschal was sick, to 
steal the crown. ' The Queen's command,' says Helen, ' sorely 
troubled me, for it was a dangerous venture for me and my little 
children, and I turned it over in my mind what I should do, for 
I had to take counsel but of God alone, and I thought if I did 
it not, and if evil arose therefrom, I should be guilty before God 
and the world. So I consented to risk my life in this difficult 
undertaking, but desired to have some one to help me.' 

" That ' some one ' was hard to find, but at last a Magyar 
gentleman, brave and devoted as herself, was found to aid her. 
The Queen went with all her ladies to the strong Castle of 
Komorn, and when there she sent back Helen and the faithful 
gentleman to the castle where the crown was kept, under pre- 
tence of packing up some of her things. 

" At midnight, every one being asleep, Helen admitted her 
confederate to the room which led to the vaults, which, although 
now appropriated to the seneschal, had been beforetime a lady's 
chamber. He brought with him a faithful servant, ' bound to 
him,' Helen says, 'by the strong tie of the same Christian 
name.' He had also files in his shoes, and plenty of wax can- 
dles. The men went into the vault, breaking and filing chains 
and locks as they went on, for there were many doors to pass, 
and Helen staid on the watch, her heart beating at every 
sound, and vowing a pilgrimage to the Virgin if their enterprise 
escaped discovery. At last the men reappeared with the crown. 
Day was beginning to break. It was almost time for their 
journey to begin. They had replaced the broken chains and 
padlocks with others they had brought with them, and the 
Queen had given them the royal signet and her keys. 

" They took the crown into the chapel, where they found a 
big velvet cushion. They took out half the stuffing and put in 



KOSSUTH. 157 

the crown. When this was done, the gentleman bade his ser- 
vant take the cushion and put it into the Lady de Kottenner's 
carriage. Then they started on their journey back to Komorn, 
with much luggage, and several of the Queen's ladies, who were 
not in the secret, in company. Crossing the Danube on the ice, 
they broke through, and the crown and Helen came very near 
being lost together, after all. 

" They reached Komorn just as a son was born to the Queen. 
There were great rejoicings, and the babe was named Ladislas, 
after an early King of Hungary, who for his goodness and piety 
had been canonized. The Magyars were not satisfied, however. 
They did not wish for an infant king and a regency. The King 
of Poland claimed to have been elected King of Hungary, and 
at the head of his troops was drawing near to claim the widowed 
Elizabeth as his bride. 

" No one had discovered the abstraction of the crown, and 
Elizabeth's plan was to take her babe to Alba Regale, the Royal 
City, and there have him crowned. She sent to Buda for cloth 
of gold to make him a splendid coronation robe, but as it did 
not arrive in time, Helen, sitting in the chapel with bolted doors 
at night, made him a splendid garment out of a vestment once 
worn by his grandfather Sigismund. It was red and gold, with 
silver spots, and she made everything he needed, even to the 
little shoes. 

" By this time, however, the Queen had heard that she would 
probably be intercepted by the Polish party on her way to Alba 
Regale, and was terribly afraid they might discover the crown. 
But Helen, saying that the King was even more important than 
the crown, proposed that the two should travel together. She 
wrapped the crown in a cloth, and hid it under the mattress of 
the King's cradle, with a long spoon for mixing his pap upon 
its top. 

" It was the week before Whitsuntide, 1440, when the Royal 
party set out on their journey, escorted by some magnates 
opposed to the Polish marriage. They crossed the Danube in 
a large boat. Then the Queen and her little girl were placed 
in a carriage. The ladies, including Helen, rode ; while the 
baby in his cradle was carried by four men. But poor little 
Lasla, as Helen calls him, screamed so loud that she was forced 
to dismount and carry him through a deep swamp in her arms. 

" The danger of attack was so great that when, in the next 
stage of their journey, the baby King was put : .nto his mother's 
carriage, 'we all,' says Helen, 'formed a guard around it, that 
if any one should shoot we might receive the shot' The little 



158 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

King proved a troublesome traveller, and either Helen or his 
nurse had to carry him on foot nearly all the next day through 
dust and wind and a pelting storm. 

" After five days' journey they reached Alba Regale, or Press- 
burg, five hundred gentlemen coming out to meet them, and 
Helen, carrying her little King, who was twelve weeks old, sur- 
rounded by these magnates, holding naked swords, rode into 
the town. 

" They passed into the church through the choir door, which 
was then closed, according to Hungarian custom, until another 
king should arrive to be crowned. The Queen swore to the 
Constitution, in the name of her son. Then he was confirmed ; 
then he was knighted, held in Helen's arms, and the old Hun- 
garian nobleman who dubbed him knight, struck with such 
force that the blow falling on Helen's arm severely hurt her. 
Next the Archbishop anointed the baby King. Next they 
dressed him in his red and gold coronation robe, and put on his 
head the holy crown, ' and the people admired to see how he 
held up his head under it,' said Helen. But the poor little man 
could have had small pleasure in his coronation, for Helen tells 
us that ' the noble King all through it wept aloud.' Helen held 
him on her lap while the crown was held upon his head ; then 
he was seated on a throne, after which, at last, he was carried 
from the church in his cradle, the crown and other regalia being 
borne before him." 

The crown of St. Stephen had many other adventures, 
though after this it was kept in an apartment of its own, 
protected by two guardians, though it was locked into an 
iron chest, and the door of the apartment was of iron. 

The greatest Hungarian of the fifteenth century was John 
Hunniades. He was a natural son of the Emperor Sigis- 
mund, and bore for his arms a crow carrying a ring in its 
mouth, in allusion to a ring given his peasant mother by 
her royal lover, and said to have been carried off by a crow. 
He also took the surname of Corvinus. All his life he 
fought the Turks, guarding the frontier of his country. 

Ladislas, the King crowned in his babyhood, showed 
great ingratitude for the services of Hunniades, putting to 
death his two eldest sons. This bitterly incensed the Hun- 
garian people, who, when Ladislas died, chose Matthias 



KOSSUTH. 159 

Corvinus, son of Hunniades, as their king. He is known in 
history as Matthias the Just, and is celebrated for his superb 
palace and library. He, however, was a bitter persecutor 
of the Hussites, and undertook a crusade against them. 
He was the idol of his people, spoke five languages fluently, 
and set up the first printing press in Hungary. He left 
no children, and the King of Poland was next called by the 
Magyars to their vacant throne. The king who succeeded 
him was the King of Bohemia, and an Archduke of Austria. 
He perished while escaping from a lost battle with the 
Turks ; and Hungary lay at their mercy. Then the Mag- 
yars offered to purchase the assistance of the Emperor 
Charles V. by giving their crown to his brother Ferdinand. 

From that moment, for three hundred years, the history 
of Hungary in its connection with the house of Hapsburg 
was one of incessant disputes, the Austrian rulers striving 
to do away with Hungarian privileges, in order to make 
Austria and Hungary one nation, — the Hungarians pro- 
testing that they were a separate people, with rights and 
privileges and a Constitution of their own. Each king swore 
to protect these rights when he was crowned with the crown 
of St. Stephen, and no king was legally their sovereign till he 
had been so crowned. 

The Austrian policy was to excite race jealousies, to stir 
up the Slav races that surrounded Hungary to make war on 
her or to rebel against her, and so far as possible to Ger- 
manize the Hungarians, discouraging every indication of 
nationality in customs, dress, and language. 

Protestantism flourished at this period in Hungary, but 
even Catholic priests and Catholic nobles desired toleration, 
while the Hapsburgs never ceased their efforts to stamp out 
the reformed religion. 

The most successful effort made to denationalize the 
Magyar nobles was unconsciously the work of Maria 
Theresa. We all know the story of her appeal to the 
Hungarian Diet, and of their response, " Let us die for our 
king, Maria Theresa ! " After this, she greatly loved her 
Hungarian subjects, and a number of the Magyar nobles 



l6o ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

gathered round her in Vienna, where they learned to con- 
sider that their national dress and speech were barbarous. 
Napoleon, in his wars with Austria, in vain endeavored to 
detach the kingdom of Hungary from its allegiance to 
Maria Theresa's successors ; and, when the Napoleonic 
wars were over, the fidelity of the Magyars was rewarded 
by a total rejection of the Hungarian claims to their 
ancient liberties and privileges. These were considered 
dangerous to the tranquillity of the rest of the Austrian 
dominions. 

But the more the Emperor of Austria endeavored to 
denationalize his Hungarians, the more closely they ad- 
hered to their ancient ways. In particular they were out- 
raged because the Magyar language had given place, by 
imperial decree, to Latin in all public documents and 
political debates. 

In 1830 the Hungarians were greatly excited, first in the 
spring by the opening of steam navigation on the Danube, 
secondly in July by the revolution in France. Again they 
made demands for the restoration of ancient privileges, and 
for the use of the Hungarian language in public documents 
and law courts, but again they were refused. 

There was one privilege, dear to Magyars, that the 
modern reform school of Hungarian nobles was anxious 
to efface. No Magyar could be taxed. All taxes were 
paid by their inferiors. Now Buda and Pesth, as we all 
know, form practically one city, but the Danube runs 
between them. There was no bridge over the Danube 
at this point, and the chief reformer, — whose name, 
Szechenyi, it is unhappily hard to pronounce, — took the 
matter in hand, built the bridge, and charged a toll of 
a few cents to be paid by every one who passed over it, 
noble and peasant alike. Great was the opposition, great 
the indignation of the nobles, — but the toll on that bridge 
was the entering wedge of reform. One old magnate wept 
bitterly, and said that he would never cross the bridge, for 
in its erection he foresaw the downfall of the Hungarian 
nobility. 



KOSSUTH. l6l 

At last, in 1844, after a fierce struggle between the 
Magyars and the Croatians in behalf of their respective 
tongues, Magyar was declared to be the national and 
official language. 

It was at this time that Louis Kossuth's connection with 
politics began. It was principally for disseminating the 
views of a noble who advocated better treatment for the 
peasantry, and for complaining that the government would 
not allow landowners to ameliorate the condition of their 
serfs by means of legislation, that Kossuth found himself in 
prison. 

The Austrian Empire was composed of more nations 
distinct from each other in language than any other, except 
Turkey. In 1848 it contained about eight millions of Ger- 
mans, nearly eighteen millions of Slavs, five and a half mil- 
lions of Magyars, and about as many Italians. The policy 
of the Austrian Cabinet was to govern by dividing, — to set 
race against race, and creed against creed. 

After 1830, Hungary had seemed to awaken like a giant 
refreshed, — railroads and steamers were introduced, the 
nobles (after the victory of the toll-gate had been carried) 
consented to pay taxes. Banks were opened, the theatres 
were filled, and books were published. As I have said, 
Kossuth started journalism and reporting. His paper, 
though carefully moderate, kindled a flame that was to 
burn fiercely and steadily. 

In 1847, the Emperor of Austria, as King of Hungary, 
opened the Diet, all the imperial family being present, and 
he answered the loyal addresses in Magyar, to the great 
delight of the Hungarians. The Archduke Stephen was 
chosen Palatine, that office being vacant. But still the 
Diet insisted on presenting a petition to the Emperor for 
the redress of grievances. Kossuth, who had signally failed 
as a public speaker a few years before, now began to dis- 
play that eloquence in which he has been unrivalled by any 
man in modern times. If he was unequalled even when he 
spoke in English, what must have been that eloquence 
when he spoke in his native tongue ! French, German, 

11 



1 62 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

and Italian he spoke as well as he did English. A writer 
on Hungary once said : — 

" As he surpassed all others in information, research, and 
knowledge of his country, besides familiarity with the statistics, 
historical lore, policy, government, and institutions of foreign 
countries. — particularly England and America, — so also he 
surpassed all men in command of language. There was no 
chord in the national heart which he did not touch with a mas- 
ter hand. He never pointed out an end without pointing out 
the means as well. He never unveiled a defect without holding 
up the remedy." 

There were three parties in Hungary when the revolution 
of 1848 broke out: — the Austrian party; the Moderates, 
who only wanted to secure the old constitutional privileges 
of Hungary ; and the Radicals. To the constitutional party 
Kossuth belonged, though he was in advance of some of its 
members, — Francis Deak, for example, to whom the cause 
that Kossuth lost has been indebted for its resurrection and 
victory. 

When news came from Paris of the fall of Louis Philippe, 
Kossuth urged upon the Diet that the right moment had 
come to put pressure on the Emperor and to insist on 
Hungarian reforms. 

Meantime, revolution had broken out in Vienna, Metter- 
nich had fled away to England, and the Emperor was dis- 
posed to do anything to pacify his people. He promised 
his Austrians trial by jury, freedom of the press, pub- 
licity of proceedings in the law courts, and parliamentary 
representation. 

On this, the Hungarian Diet resolved to send a deputa- 
tion to Vienna, with Kossuth at the head of it. The 
Palatine the Archduke Stephen, an excellent man, and a 
true friend to Hungary, formed a ministry which included 
Kossuth, Deak, Count Batthyani, Prince Paul Esterhazy, 
and others. 

The Emperor, after a little hesitation, confirmed the 
appointment of this ministry, and the work of reform 
went on. 



KOSSUTH. 163 

11 By unanimous votes in both houses, taxation was equally 
distributed, and perfect toleration in religion was secured. The 
nobles gave up all right to exact feudal labor from the peasantry, 
and, in fact, made the peasants a free gift of half the cultivated 
land in the kingdom, so that each peasant family owned from 
thirty to forty acres. Every man who owned $150 worth 
of property had a right to an electoral vote. The Diet also 
introduced other reforms." 



But alas ! — there was war on the southern and western 
boundaries of Hungary. The Slav provinces, Croatia and 
Transylvania, wanted to be separate nationalities ; Croatia, 
now that changes were to be made, had no wish to remain 
part of Hungary. Austria encouraged these views, that she 
might weaken Hungary, whom she distrusted and feared. 
The Croats rose under Joseph Jellachich, recently created 
Ban of Croatia, — that is, Viceroy, — and he sent word to 
the Archduchess Sophia, the Emperor's sister-in-law, whose 
influence was all-powerful in the Palace, that he was marching 
to the assistance of the Emperor. 

The Hungarians felt themselves deeply outraged by the 
ingratitude and defection of the Croats, and prepared to 
resist their invasion. A levy of two hundred thousand men, 
and a grant of twelve million florins for war purposes were 
voted by the Diet, and wild was the enthusiasm when 
Kossuth exclaimed fervently : " If your energy equals your 
patriotism, I will make bold to say that hell itself cannot 
prevail against Hungary ! " 

Alas ! — there was energy enough, and patriotism, but. 
there were divisions among them. The patriotism of the 
country was divided. Hungary claimed Croatia, which 
disputed her claim ; Transylvania looked for freedom under 
its own princes ; and certain other provinces rose also in 
revolt, so that Hungary had not only to make head against 
the Austrians for the recognition of her own constitutional 
rights, but had to fight what she considered insurgent 
provinces. 

Then Hungary had no leader, soldier and statesman, as 
Italy had in Charles Albert, then fighting the Austrians. 



164 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Kossuth was at that time unknown to Europe, and his 
name carried with it no weight beyond the Hungarian 
border. 

Again, it was not clear to Europe what Hungary was 
fighting for. Was it for its ancient Constitution, and the 
privileges of the old Magyars, which had been set aside by 
the nineteenth century aspirations of the peasantry? Half 
the Hungarian leaders favored a republic, and half were for 
the old constitutional monarchy. Again, every other gov- 
ernment in Europe, except Russia, had its hands full of its 
own troubles in 1849. I ta b'j as we have seen, was in a 
blaze of war, bitterness, and revolution ; Spain was in vain 
looking for a ruler; France was still tempest-tossed; Ger- 
many was beset with revolutions and revolutionists, with no 
Prince Bismarck in that day at her head. Russia alone had 
attention to bestow on the affairs of Hungary, and it was 
her assistance that Austria invoked. 

Panslavism was growing strong in Russia at that period, 
and the idea of a Panslavonic empire had its promoters 
and agents even in the United States. The peoples opposed 
to it were the Magyars and Roumanians, who both hated 
the Slavs, and at any time preferred Turkey to Russia. The 
Slav peoples whom Russia desired to assimilate were Poles, 
Croatians, Transylvanians, Servians, Bosnians, Herzegovi- 
nians, and the semi-Slav Bulgarians. In Hungary, Walla- 
chia, and Moldavia, there was likewise a considerable pop- 
ulation of Slavs, who, if encouraged and assisted, might get 
the upper hand of the dominant Magyars. So the Emperor 
of Russia was well pleased to march his armies through 
Moldavia, and extinguish an independent spirit in the king- 
dom of Hungary. 

The populace of Vienna, led by young students from the 
universities, had been ready enough to make a revolution, 
but it lacked the purpose, steadiness, and union that would 
have carried it on. Dissensions allowed time to Prince 
Windischgratz to organize the Emperor's army and to re- 
cover Vienna. Then the Emperor, who had declared Jella- 
chich and his Croatians rebels against his Hungarian kingdom, 



KOSSUTH. 165 

welcomed them to Austria as his allies. The Hungarian 
army, which had hesitated to march over the frontier into 
Austria, did so at last. It was ill disciplined, and, in spite 
of its frantic valor, was defeated. Then the Emperor pro- 
ceeded to take vengeance both on Vienna and Hungary. 
He was a weak man, but a conscientious one. When it was 
urged upon him that Hungary must be reduced to the rank 
of an Austrian province, he declared that he could not 
break the oath he had taken when St. Stephen's crown 
was placed upon his head. He therefore abdicated, and 
left the task of annihilating the kingdom of Hungary to 
Francis Joseph, his successor. This young man had been 
popular with the Hungarians. He spoke Magyar well, hav- 
ing had a Hungarian tutor. He refused to be crowned 
King of Hungary, or to take any oath to support its Consti- 
tution, and very soon the Diet passed a Declaration of In- 
dependence, and set up a Committee of Defence pro tem., 
its Provisional Chief Executive being Kossuth. The Cath- 
olic clergy joined the patriotic movement. 

The five principal generals in Hungary were Bern and 
Klapka, — who had come forward to defend Vienna, — 
Gorgey, Guyon, and Dembinski. Of the five, two were Poles. 
Gorgey of these generals was by far the greatest. He was one 
of those leaders who possess magnetic influence over their sol- 
diers, and his tactics in war were as brilliant as those of 
Napoleon, but he was hampered by civilians in the Com- 
mittee of Defence, and grew restive and irritable. Besides 
this, he was jealous of the other generals, and perpetually 
quarrelled with those either under or above him. Kossuth 
endeavored " to make things work," as we say in colloquial 
language, but his task was herculean. 

The brilliant generalship of Gorgey defeated the Austri- 
ans. Jellachich retired to Croatia with his followers. 
Meantime, Lombardy and Venetia were in revolt, and all 
the strength of Austria was needed in Italy. 

The Hungarians had almost believed their independence 
won, when Francis Joseph called to his aid the Emperor of 
Russia, and a Russian force of two hundred thousand men, 



1 66 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

marching through Moldavia, entered the eastern provinces 
of Hungary. 

Then nothing could exceed the miseries of the Hungari- 
ans. The Servian and Hungarian peasants, without lead- 
ers, engaged in a guerilla warfare all along the border line. 
The combatants were as savage as Red Indians, and far less 
disciplined. Every man fought for his own hand. 

Meantime, Marshal Haynau was recalled from Italy, 
where he had perpetrated all kinds of cruelty at Brescia. 
Flogging women in public was one of the atrocities that 
drew on him the disgust of all the world. 

I think it probable that the only names connected with 
the revolution in Hungary well known to the general public 
are those of Haynau the Austrian, and Kossuth. Haynau 
may thank the workmen at Barclay and Perkins's brewery 
in London for his unenviable notoriety. 

Hungarian ladies (like other ladies when they believe 
their sons and husbands to be fighting in a patriotic war) 
were enthusiasts in the cause whose justice they maintained. 
When, after a while, Hungary lay prostrate at the feet of the 
Austrians, vengeance began, — and the ladies of Hungary 
were not spared in the day of retribution. 

The chief military punishment in Austria is for the offend- 
ing soldier to "run the gauntlet," or rather not to run, for 
he is forced to walk, stripped to the waist, at the pace of a mili- 
tary march, down two lines of soldiers armed with rods, who 
strike him as he passes. This punishment was inflicted by 
Haynau's orders on high-born Magyar ladies and on nuns. 
They were stripped like soldiers to the waist, but were 
sometimes allowed a light shawl to cover their shoulders. 
Thus they passed down the rank, stepping firmly, generally 
without word or groan. Sometimes a soldier would refuse 
to strike, and was punished on the spot for contumacy. 

There were many such atrocities committed, but not by 
the Russians, or under any Austrian general except Haynau. 
" Punch," then in his young days, took up the subject, and 
the heart of all England was stirred against Haynau by sev- 
eral of his pictures. 



KOSSUTH. \6j 

A year or two afterwards, Marshal Haynau met with retri- 
bution. He visited London, but was refused admission to 
the clubs and had to content himself with sight-seeing. At 
Barclay and Perkins's brewing establishment he was vigorously 
assaulted by their burly workmen, and, although their treat- 
ment of him was brutal in the extreme, every man and 
woman in England in their hearts applauded them. 

After the Russian army invaded Hungary, Gorgey de- 
spaired. With divided counsels, divided ends, and dissen- 
sions among their generals, with Serb and Croat populations 
against the Magyars, and revolt in the frontier provinces, 
Gorgey thought that Hungary could not hope to succeed, 
and that it would be a crime to prolong the struggle. 

For many years in all Hungarian books Gorgey was called 
a traitor for his conduct. He was said to have thrown up 
the cause out of spite to other leaders. When the cause of 
Hungary grew desperate, he had been called upon, in August, 
1849, to assume the post of Military Dictator, and the Com- 
mittee of Defence resigned, refusing to participate in any 
steps looking to submission. 

Gorgey surrendered his Hungarian army, August 13, 
1849, at Villagos to the Russians, — his officers breaking 
their swords, and his troopers shooting their horses, after 
hugging and kissing them. Kossuth and the other leaders 
passed over the frontier into Turkey. 

"Those among us," said an English paper in 1885, "who 
remember the particulars of the Hungarian War of Independ- 
ence, will recall that the Hungarian commander in chief, Arthur 
Gorgey, was the scapegoat sent out into the wilderness with all 
the sins and sorrows of that unsuccessful struggle upon his 
head. It was not enough that two of the most formidable 
military powers of Europe had joined their forces to crush the 
Hungarians; they were betrayed, — so the world was assured, 
— by the foremost soldier in their ranks, the general to whom 
Kossuth, in a moment of misplaced confidence, had intrusted 
the future of his country. No one who is unfamiliar with the 
excitable and emotional races of Southern Europe would appre- 
ciate the readiness with which the words " betrayed " and 
" traitor " spring to the lips of all men on experiencing a 



1 68 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

reverse. Why Gorgey should have turned traitor, his accusers 
never knew ; but it was taken for granted that the motive for 
his surrender was unworthy." 

The capitulation at Villagos, where twenty-four thousand 
men, with one hundred and forty cannon, laid down their arms 
before the Russian commander (who had an enormously 
superior force), was for the Hungarian nation what the 
humiliations of Metz, Sedan, and Paris were to the French 
people. By it two delusions, dear to the Hungarian heart, 
seemed in danger of being blown aside. First, that Hun- 
gary alone in arms might defy all her enemies ; secondly, if 
she could not, that the free peoples of the West would inter- 
fere to save her. The theory of Gorgey' s treason came 
opportunely to save the amour-propre of the nation. 

Probably at that time Hungary never could have suc- 
ceeded in establishing her independence. She has it now, 
though it was not secured under conditions that satisfied her 
great patriot, Kossuth. Her chief difficulty in 1849 lay in 
her divided counsels. From the first, Kossuth and Gorgey 
had differed as to the proper aim and scope of her aspira- 
tions. When, after the Russians entered Hungary, military 
disasters began, Kossuth abdicated and left the country, but 
his rival remained and capitulated. 

From 1849 to 1867, when a reconciliation took place 
between Hungary and its King, the Emperor of Austria, 
Gorgey was kept under Austrian surveillance, and was never 
allowed to revisit his home. About Christmas, 1884, some 
old Hungarian officers sat discussing the surrender of 
Villagos, and, finding that they all agreed in exonerating 
Gorgey, they determined to collect the opinions of their 
surviving comrades. The result was that on Christmas Day 
they presented a paper to General Gorgey, signed by nearly 
all the officers then living of his army, declaring that in 
capitulating at Villagos he had altogether acted as became 
a soldier and a patriot. 

What consolation this must have been to the heart of the 
old soldier who had lived thirty-five years under the weight 
of unmerited opprobrium ! 



KOSSUTH. 169 

After Gorgey surrendered to the Russians, the great 
fortress of Komorn, in a bend of the Danube, held out under 
General Klapka against the Austrians. When informed of 
the surrender of Gorgey, he asked for the cessation of hos- 
tilities for a month to send out and receive information. 
That information convinced him that he could do nothing 
but surrender. He did so, making excellent terms for his 
garrison, — which the Austrians violated in every respect. 

When the Russians, shortly afterwards, retired, Austrian 
vengeance began. Count Louis Batthyani, one of the lead- 
ing men of Hungary, whose course had been always as con- 
servative as it was possible for that of a Hungarian patriot 
to be, perished on the scaffold. Out of thirty-four Hun- 
garian generals, twelve were shot or hanged ; three were 
imprisoned for life, and the rest became exiles. Scaffolds 
were erected in all the cities, and the executioners, in green 
uniforms, were kept frightfully busy. These executions, 
which might more properly be called judicial massacres, 
went on for some months. 

I have heard from those who have visited Hungary that 
the people, their country homes, and way of life, strongly 
resemble those of Old Virginia. 

Kossuth, with five thousand men, among whom were 
Generals Guyon, Bern, and Dembinski, escaped over the 
frontier into Turkey. Russia and Austria demanded the 
fugitives. Sultan Abdul Medjid consulted France and 
England. He was counselled to do his best to protect the 
refugees, but if Austria invaded Turkish territory, England 
and France would not promise to help him. Under these 
circumstances, the Sultan proposed to the Hungarians to 
declare themselves Mahomedans, when, of course, he 
could not deliver them up to the infidels. To become a 
renegade and to enter the Turkish service had been no 
unusual thing among Hungarians. The great general, 
Omar Pasha, was one of them. How many of the five 
thousand men who accompanied Kossuth accepted the 
Sultan's proposal I do not know. Generals Bern and Dem- 
binski did; Kossuth, a Protestaryt, refused peremptorily; 



170 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Guyon was made Pasha of Damascus. Both he and Bern 
died in the Turkish service. A price was set, not only on 
Kossuth's head, but on the heads of his wife and his three 
little children. His wife, however, after many perils and 
adventures, joined him in Turkey, and was sent with him to 
Asia Minor. The little boys were seized and imprisoned at 
Pressburg, where their treatment was so severe that Haynau 
himself interfered on their behalf, and they were sent to 
their father. 

A few months later, Senator Foote offered a resolution in 
the United States Senate that our country should intervene 
on behalf of Kossuth and his companions. Both England 
and America offered to send a war vessel for their use, but 
Kossuth chose that of America, the Mississippi, on board of 
which, with his wife, children, and a party of his friends, he 
embarked for America. On leaving Turkey, Suleiman Bey, 
who had been appointed to watch over them, said: "You 
are free. You will find friends everywhere. Do not forget 
those who were your friends when you had no other." 

Kossuth and his party did not, however, reach America 
on the Mississippi. The weather was stormy, and Madame 
Kossuth suffered so terribly from sea-sickness that the ship 
put into Marseilles for her relief. Kossuth hoped to cross 
France by land on his way to England. But during his 
residence in Turkey he had shown signs of affiliation with 
Mazzini, and the French Republic, already embarrassed by 
that leader of revolutionary ideas declined to give him pas- 
sage. Kossuth was exceedingly hurt by this refusal. The 
people of Marseilles in boats crowded round the Mississippi, 
offering him wreaths of laurel. He addressed them from 
the poop in a French speech, but his address contained 
some impolitic and uncourteous allusions to the man whom 
he called Monsieur Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Kossuth 
little foresaw that in ten years he would fall for a while under 
the charm of Monsieur Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, advanced 
to the dignity of Emperor of the French. 

The Mississippi landed her passengers, by their wish, at 
Gibraltar, whence they went in an English steamer to Eng- 



KOSSUTH. 171 

land. In England Kossuth remained from October 26 to 
the middle of November 1851, receiving addresses, silken 
banners, and public dinners. He was not in good health, 
having broken down before the fall of Hungary, and was 
glad, while in England, to seek medical aid. He became 
the idol of all classes in England, his marvellous fluency of 
speech greatly contributing to this result. He lauded the 
Queen and the Constitution of England, while at the same 
time he expressed the hope that Hungary would one day 
be a Republic. At Liverpool he was requested to give his 
opinion of Socialism. "I can," he said, " understand 
Communism, but not Socialism. I have read many books 
on the subject, but never could make out what they really 
mean. The only sense that I can see in Socialism is incon- 
sistent with social order and the security of property. . . . 
I am firmly resolved to use all the influence that Providence 
may place in my hands in the next great struggle, in such a 
manner that no doctrines shall rule the destinies of nations 
which are subversive of social order." 

To America Kossuth had been invited as the guest of 
the nation. He reached the harbor of New York, Decem- 
ber 5, 185 1, — three days after the coup d'Etat in Paris 
made the will of Louis Napoleon supreme over the French 
people. Madame Kossuth, Monsieur and Madame Pulsky, 
and several Hungarian gentlemen came with him. 

In Washington he was received with honors such as had 
been offered to no man save Lafayette. He made addresses 
and received public dinners in all the large cities of the 
Union. Nothing could exceed the enthusiastic admiration 
of his hearers ; but he failed wholly in the object of his mis- 
sion. Neither the government nor individual citizens could 
be prevailed on to give him material aid to raise another 
revolution in Hungary. Everywhere he went he spoke of 
the dangerous and growing power of Russia, and professed 
himself a republican. He also paid tributes of personal 
gratitude to the Sultan of Turkey, and to the English people ; 
the English government had refused to recognize him as a 
public character. 



172 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

At Cleveland he spoke of the resources of Hungary. 
"She has," he said, "no public debt, a population of 
fifteen millions, a territory of more than one hundred thou- 
sand square miles, abounding in the greatest variety of 
Nature's gifts, if only the doom of oppression were taken 
from her. She has rich mines of gold, silver, copper, quick- 
silver, antimony, iron, salt, sulphur, nickel, and opal. She 
has the richest salt mines in the world, where it costs but 
twenty-five cents to extract one hundredweight of the 
purest rock salt, which is sold by the government for from 
two to more than three dollars. The government? No ! — 
there is no government in Hungary ! It is usurpation, now 
sucking out the life-blood of the people, crushing the spirit 
of freedom by soldiers, hangmen, and policemen, — and 
harassing the people in its domestic life and the sanctuary 
of family life, with oppression worse than any American can 
conceive." 

It was thus in 1852. In this year, 1896, the Hungarians 
are celebrating their millennial jubilee with overflowing 
hearts of thankfulness and wild enthusiasm. But it is only 
indirectly to Kossuth that this end is due. 

After his return from America he retired to Turin ; and 
we shall again meet with him in Italian history. 




KING VICTOR EMMANUEL. 



CHAPTER IX. 

VICTOR EMMANUEL. 

A T the close of the year 1849 there seemed a pause in 
**• the history of Italian affairs. It was like the cele- 
brated official announcement : " Order reigns in Warsaw," 
when that city lay bound and bleeding, life and spirit 
crushed out of her, at the feet of her oppressor. Rome 
had fallen before the army of the French, and the Pope was 
preparing to return from Gaeta, where he had been holding 
Court with King Bomba, turned out of Naples, and the 
Archduke Leopold, self-exiled from Tuscany. Bomba went 
back to his dominions to practise untold cruelties upon his 
subjects for another ten years; Leopold, more mild, went 
back to Tuscany and governed thenceforth like a well- 
behaved Archduke, virtually a vassal of Austria. Venice and 
Lombardy had been given back to the hated " stranger." 

The government of Austria had always been milder than 
that of the large majority of Italian princes, so long as her 
subjects submitted to her rule ; but towards men of liberal 
opinions her course was horribly severe. King Charles 
Albert had been totally defeated by Radetzky, at Novara ; 
he had abdicated that same evening, when he rode off into 
the Austrian camp to surrender himself, and then proceeded 
to Oporto, to the dominions of his son-in-law, the King of 
Portugal, where he lived in strict privacy, and died of a broken 
heart a few months after. His remains now rest in Pied- 
mont, in the mausoleum of the princes of the house of 
Savoy. 

His son and successor, Vittorio Emmanuele (Victor Em- 
manuel), was proclaimed King almost upon the battlefield. 



174 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Shaking his sword towards Austria, he swore that Italy 
should yet be a nation, — " Per Dio ! Italia sard ! " — It 
seemed a vain boast at the moment. Sardinia was utterly 
defeated, Italy utterly prostrate, — and yet the gallant 
King at the bottom of the box of ills saw hope. 1 

The line of the Dukes of Savoy, — subsequently Kings of 
Piedmont and Sardinia, — had sprung from a Norseman, 
Humbert (Umberto) of the White Hands. They were all 
brave, hardy, and domestic. All bore traces of their North- 
man origin, and Victor Emmanuel was a true son of his 
race. His mother was a princess of Tuscany, sister of Leo- 
pold the Grand Duke ; his boyhood had been spent in a 
villa near Florence, while his father was constrained to ex- 
piate his liberalism by serving against the Constitutionalists 
in Spain. In that villa was born his dear brother Ferdinand 
Albert Amadeus, the Duke of Genoa. 

The two boys were very strictly educated according to 
the old rules of the house of Savoy. Their chief preceptors 
were Monsignor Charvaz, afterwards Bishop of Genoa, and 
Dabormida, then a Piedmontese officer, afterwards a general 
and minister of State. Another officer, La Marmora, also 
assisted in their education. They were both boys of strong 
affections and remarkable intelligence, but Ferdinand was 
more studious than his brother. Victor never took kindly 
to book-learning. They had the highest love and venera- 
tion for their noble ancestry, — a feeling that they must 
never fall short of what should be expected from a son of the 
house of Savoy. Theirs was that grand feeling of Noblesse 
oblige, than which there is no higher worldly motive. 

Victor Emmanuel, when he grew up, was of middle 
stature, broad-shouldered and powerful, with a dark skin, 
brown hair, a snub nose, and heavy under-jaw, — not hand- 
some, — as a Savoyard peasant woman told him once, ex- 
claiming when he informed her that he was the King : 

1 If any of my readers wish to know the history of Victor Em- 
manuel, // Re Galantuomo, more minutely than I can tell it here, I 
recommend them to read it in the " Life of Victor Emmanuel," by 
G. S. Godkin, a small volume published by Macmillan and Co. 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 75 

" You need not try to deceive me with such talk ; I will 
never believe that our dear, sweet, pretty queen, would 
have married so ugly a man!" He wore a full brown 
beard and an immense moustache. Kindliness and good 
feeling beamed from his brown eyes. He had married his 
cousin Maria Adelaide, daughter of the Austrian Archduke 
Ranieri, Viceroy of Lombardy. Her mother was his aunt, 
Charles Albert's sister. The Princess Adelaide was very 
pious, and suffered much from the Church's hostility to her 
husband and his opposition to the temporal claims of the 
clergy in his kingdom. The war between her husband and 
her family nearly broke her heart, but she never set herself 
openly in opposition to her husband, or to those Italian 
interests that he had in charge. She was beautifully charit- 
able, and a devoted wife. Her husband was deeply attached 
to her, though history cannot but record that his morals 
were loose with respect to women, and his infidelities must 
have cost her many a heart-pang. In that, as in other things, 
he was very like Henri Quatre, — the Vert Galant. The 
pair had five children who survived their infancy. Hum- 
bert (Umberto) now King of Italy; Amadeus, who became 
King of Spain when Leopold of Hohenzollern refused the 
crown, and abdicated when convinced that only a native 
prince would satisfy the Spaniards ; Maria Pia, who married 
the young King of Portugal ; the Princess Clotilde who sacri- 
ficed herself in marriage to Prince Napoleon Bonaparte, for 
the good of her country ; and a lame boy, Odone. 

Victor Emmanuel's feelings, when he found himself King 
of Piedmont and Sardinia, must have been bitter in the ex- 
treme. A more miserable inheritance could hardly have 
been transmitted from father to son. " I did not desire to 
be King," he said, a few days after, to the English ambassa- 
dor ; " I have no taste for the profession. It seems to me a 
miserable one, and at the present day very difficult." 

The first thing to be done was to arrange an armistice 
with Austria, for Piedmont could fight no longer. Marshal 
Radetzky made Victor Emmanuel all kinds of tempting 
offers if he would give in his adherence to the Austrian 



Ij6 ITALY IX THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

policy in Italy, and abrogate his fathers gift of a Constitu- 
tion to his subjects. " Marsha] ! n the young King answered 
vehemently, <• I would sooner lose a hundred crowns than 
break my word to my people. What my father has sworn 
to I will maintain. If you wish a war to the death — be it 
so ! I will call my nation to arms once more, and you will 
see what Piedmont is capable of in a general rising. If I 
must fall it shall be without shame. My house knows the 
road to exile, but not that to dishonor 

The old Austrian marshal, to the day of his death, al 
spoke of Victor Emmanuel as " that noble fell ; 

The terms exacted by the Austrians for a cessation of 
hostilities were cruelly hard; very like those which the 
Prussians exacted afterwards when the French armies had 
been disheartened and defeated in the Franco- Pms si m 
war. — an indemnity of eighty thousand francs, and pes ses- 
sion of certain frontier fortresses till the money should be 
paid. 

The people of Piedmont and Savoy ~ere so bitterly dis- 
appointed by defeat, so overwhelmed by these hard condi- 
tions, that not a cheer greeted the new King on his entrance 
into his capital. Thus ran his proclamation : — 

•■ Cirizen s : — Untoward events, and the will of my most 
venerated father, have called me, long before mv time, to the 
throne of my ancestors. The circumstances under which I 
hold the reins :: government are such that nothing but the 
most perfect concord amongst us all will enable me (and then 
only with difficulty) to fulfil my only desire, the salvation of our 
common country. The destinies of nations are matured in the 
designs of Providence, but man owes to his country all the ser- 
vice he is capable of: and in this debt we have not failed. 
Now all our efforts must be to maintain our honor untarnished, 
to heal the wounds of our country, to consolidate her constitu- 
tional institutions- To this undertaking I conjure all my peo- 
ple : to it I will pledge myself by a solemn oath, and I await 
from the nation the exchange of help, affection, and confide r ice. 

•• Victor Emm a n del." 

:h the greatest difficulty the Chamber of Deputies was 
brought to consent to the conditions of the armistice, even 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. I J J 

when the old Chamber had been dissolved, and a new one, 
chosen fresh from the people, had taken its place. 

All over Italy the extreme party, — the party of Mazzini, — 
raised the cry of " Traitor!" against Charles Albert and 
Victor Emmanuel. " I am ashamed of myself now," wrote 
one in after years, on remembering that he had once written, 
in relation to Victor Emmanuel, that " it might be wise to 
use, but not to trust the King." 

If it was hard to get a Piedmontese parliament to con- 
sent to the terms of the armistice, it was harder still to 
induce it to ratify the terms of the treaty of peace. In 
vain Austria modified somewhat the conditions of indemnity 
and cession of territory, which bore with crushing force on 
Piedmont, in hopes that the little nation would consult its 
own interests by surrendering in return a stipulation it was 
desirous to make, i. e., that the hundred thousand Italians 
from Lombardy and Venetia who had come over into Pied- 
mont to fight under her sovereign should be amnestied by 
the Austrian government. After five months the dispute re- 
sulted in a compromise. A few leading men were exempted 
from the amnesty, the rest were suffered to return home. 

But Austria was not disposed to treat her unloving sub- 
jects with mildness. The very day after the promulgation 
of the amnesty a street riot took place in Milan, on the 
occasion of the Emperor's birthday, and the Countess 
Cesaresco gives us a list of seventeen persons, — all of them 
of what we should call the respectable classes, — who were 
publicly beaten with rods, and for these rods the Milanese 
municipality had to pay thirty-nine florins. Among the per- 
sons so beaten were two young women, opera-singers, one 
aged eighteen, the other twenty. Among the men were 
barristers, artists and students, a watchmaker, a lithographer, 
a bookseller, and a domestic servant. Sixty strokes of the 
Austrian stick were generally enough to prove fatal. Many 
of these persons were condemned to receive fifty. 

But, though the peace had been signed by the King, the 
Parliament still held out, and Victor Emmanuel and his 
ministers dissolved the Chamber. 



178 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The King made a stirring appeal to his people, which, 
Cavour said, saved the country. " The country was roused 
to a sense of duty and citizenship," says Mr. Godkin, " and 
sent up moderate and sensible men who had the true 
interests of their country at heart." 

At this time, too, Victor Emmanuel was saddened and 
embarrassed by a new difficulty. Genoa took the oppor- 
tunity of revolting from Piedmont. The garrison was driven 
out of the city, and for a few days Genoa was in the hands 
of the extreme republicans, when La Marmora was sent to 
put the revolt down. 

Victor Emmanuel's first ministry had comprised Gioberti, 
the priest whose eloquent pamphlet on the abuses of gov- 
ernment in the Papal States had first roused liberal feelings 
in the breast of Pio Nono, while he was yet the Cardinal 
Mastai-Ferretti. A somewhat more conservative ministry 
succeeded. At the head of it was the statesman, artist and 
novelist, the Marquis d'Azeglio, though he was still unable 
to stand, being disabled by a wound received while fighting 
the Austrians at Vicenza. It is said that some one having 
suggested Camillo Cavour as a man who might be called 
upon to form a ministry, the King replied, "The time for 
Cavour is not yet." 

Victor Emmanuel, unlike Louis Napoleon, had always 
superior men around him, — men to aid, but not to rule 
him, for, as M. Thiers said of him, when he came to know 
him, " C'est bien le souverain le plus fin que j'ai connu en 
Europe." D'Azeglio, Cavour, La Marmora, Balbo, Dabor- 
mida, and others of the same stamp, were the men who 
enjoyed his confidence. 

One day, d'Azeglio, talking alone with him, said that 
there had been few honest kings in the world. " You mean 
by that," said Victor Emmanuel, " that I am to begin the 
series?" "Your Majesty has sworn to the Constitution, • 
and you thought of all Italy, not Piedmont only. Let us 
continue in that path, and hold that a king must keep his 
word." " Well, in that case," said Victor Emmanuel, " the 
profession seems an easy one to me." 



\ 

VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 79 

A few days after this the census-taker in Turin called on 
the King with his paper. Under the heading of " Pro- 
fession," Victor Emmanuel wrote " Re Galantuomo." It 
is the name he has been known by ever since, — The honest 
King ! And galantuomo means even more than honest ; it 
means valiant for the truth. 

As long as Pio Nono continued at Gaeta, Victor Emman- 
uel endeavored to call him back, by letters and ambassadors, 
to his old path of patriotic reform. But the ambassadors 
were rarely admitted to an audience, and the letters were 
answered with stinging rebukes. The Pope was committed 
in all things temporal to the influence and policy of the 
Austrian®. The priest was stronger in him than the patriot. 
Before Victor Emmanuel had been long upon the throne 
he had a desperate illness, and this, although it gave hope 
to Mazzini's party of extreme republicans, drew back to 
him in some measure the affection of his people. The 
peace with Austria that had been signed and ratified was, 
as the King said of it, "hard, but not ruinous." Balbo 
called it an armistice which would hardly last ten years. 
It remained to consolidate the constitutional institutions of 
the country, and, in the sailors' phrase, to " stand by " for 
the next duty which might be indicated by events. 

One of the first things needed to make the Constitution 
work, was to treat all men as equal under the law. To 
effect this, some priestly privileges had to be abolished. 
Piedmont, indeed, retained more of such privileges than 
any other European State, even in Italy. The priests 
claimed the medieval right of affording sanctuary, and no 
priest could be tried in any case, civil or criminal, except 
in a court, called Foro Ecclesiastico, where bishops only sat 
as judges. 

Sicardi, the Minister of Grace and Justice, who was to 
propose and carry through these laws, which bore his 
name, was sent to Gaeta to confer with the Pope con- 
cerning them. The Pope and his advisers affected after- 
wards to believe that he had never said a word concerning 
the concordat during his embassy, meaning, it is to be 



l80 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

supposed, that the matters on which he had been sent to 
treat lay outside the concordat, — i. e., the agreement 
between the Church and the government of Piedmont 
concerning the limits of temporal and spiritual power. 
The negotiation, at any rate, between the courts of Turin 
and Gaeta came to nothing, and the ministry at whose head 
was d'Azeglio, and among whose members was Santa Rosa, 
a statesman of sincere piety and a pure life, passed the 
Sicardi laws. Their objects were to make priests amenable 
to the law of the land, except in what referred to their 
spiritual functions ; to limit the wealth amassed by convents 
and religious corporations ; to check the multiplication of 
convents, and to diminish the number of feast days ; to 
deliver education from the sole control of the clergy ; and, 
lastly, to permit civil marriages, all those not performed 
by the parish priest having been previously illegal, and the 
children born of such unions illegitimate. 

Undoubtedly such changes were distasteful to the whole 
body of the clergy, and to many sincerely religious persons, 
especially women. Reading Lord Broughton's letters, or 
Mr. Nassau Senior's journals from Italy, about this period, 
we see how society in Piedmont was stirred to its depths by 
the prospect of what to many seemed sacrilege and rob-' 
bery. Great excitement resulted from the death at this 
time of Santa Rosa, who, though a sincerely religious man 
and a good Catholic, was denied the last sacraments by his 
parish priest, under direction from his bishop, unless he 
would repent of having favored laws so obnoxious to the 
Holy Father and the clergy. Santa Rosa would not recant, 
and died without absolution. It was deemed expedient to 
make examples. The convent of the order to which the 
priest belonged who refused him the last sacraments was 
suppressed, and the Bishop of Turin and two others, who 
persisted in opposing the execution of the Sicardi laws, 
were sent into exile. Wealth taken from the convents was 
devoted to educational and charitable purposes, but this 
kind of spoliation rarely advances the cause of religion. It 
stirs up strife and worldliness in both parties. But Pied- 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. l8l 

mont was almost at the end of her resources, and men, 
as well as nations, do sometimes what it were best that they 
should not do, under the pressure of want of funds. 

The passage of the Sicardi laws cost much anguish of 
heart to Victor Emmanuel. Many of those who sur- 
rounded him thought he was sacrificing his faith as a 
Christian by endeavoring to meddle with the privileges 
of the Church. He suffered terribly, five years after his 
accession, when, in 1854, both his mother and his wife 
were dying. He was passing from one sick bed to the 
other, and both women, especially his mother, were urging 
him, for his soul's sake, not to set himself in opposition to 
the Holy See. But Victor Emmanuel stood firm. The 
Queen Dowager and Queen Consort died within a week of 
each other, and two weeks later died the Duke of Genoa, 
Victor Emmanuel's beloved brother Ferdinand. To sup- 
port the King under these sorrows, the good Archbishop of 
Genoa, Victor Emmanuel's old tutor, Monsignor Charvaz, 
hastened to him, for to feel himself cut off from the Church 
at such a moment was agony to Victor Emmanuel. " They 
tell me," said he to the Archbishop, in a voice broken by 
sobs, " that God has stricken me with a judgment, and has 
taken from me my mother, my wife, and my brother, be- 
cause I consented to these Sicardi laws, and they threaten 
me with greater punishments. But do they not know that a 
sovereign who wishes to secure his own happiness in the 
other world ought to labor for the happiness of his people 
on earth? " 

D'Azeglio, speaking of him at this time, says : 

" I found him thinner by half than he had been. His waist- 
coat, which used to be tight, I could put my hand into, and still 
it hung about him. But with the exception of a couple of days 
he attended to business, and signed documents, saying to me : 
1 1 am King ; it is my duty.' Certainly, he appears fifteen 
years older. However, the stuff, physical and moral, is strong, 
and I have no fears." 

Both the mother of the King and his wife were admirable 
women. Though the latter was the daughter of an Arch- 



[82 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 

lake of Austria, she had at heart the interests of Italy, and 
had never attempted to influence her husband in opposition 
to them, except in this matter of the Sicardi laws. She had 
borne her husband five children, was devoted to his inter- 
ests, and, in the end, was popular with his subjects. He 
?_5 has been said, truly attached to her, though, unhap- 
pily, his wayward fancy caused him to desert her often for 
other women. Some little excuse may be found for him in 
the life that he had been compelled to lead at his father's 
Court during the early days of his marriage. 

A story which made much noise in Turin during Charles 
Albert's lifetime, is thus told by the Countess Cesaresco, 
She relates the anecdote when speaking of the little sympa- 
thy or enthusiasm felt for Victor Emmanuel in Piedmont, 
on his accession. 

*■ Victor Emmanuel was not popular. The indifference to 
danger which he had shown so conspicuously during the war 
would have awakened enthusiasm in most countries, but in 
Piedmont it was so thoroughly taken for granted that the 
princes of the house of Savoy did not know fear, that it was 
looked upon as an ordinary fact. The Austrian origin of the 
Princess, his wife, formed a peg on which to hang unfriendly 
theories. It is impossible not to compassionate the poor young 
wife, who suddenly found herself queen of a people who hated 
ha race, after having lived since her marriage the most dreary 
of lives, in the dismallest court in Europe. At first, as a bride, 
she seemed to have a desire to break through the frozen eti- 
quette which surrounded her : it is told how she once begged 
and praved her husband to take her for a walk under the Por- 
ticos of Turin, which she had looked at only from the outside. 
The young couple enjoyed their airing, but when it reached 
Charles Alberts ears.' he ordered his son to be immediately 
placed under military arrest. The chilling formalism which 
invaded even the private life of these royal personages, shutting 
the door to 'good comradeship/ even between husband and 
mav have had much to do with driving Victor Emmanuel 
from the' side of the Princess, whom, nevertheless, he loved and 
venerated." 

Possibly Charles Albert but too well remembered the 
scandal caused by his " emancipated " mother when she 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 83 

walked the streets of Turin in revolutionary costume, with 
her infant in her arms. 

The Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio quitted his post of Pre- 
mier in 1852, worn out by physical suffering and the men- 
tal anxieties of his high position. When he made the 
announcement of his resignation to the King, he recom- 
mended that Cavour, who was then in the Cabinet as Min- 
ister of Agriculture, should take his place. Victor Emman- 
uel remarked that though he had no objection to Count 
Camillo Cavour, his other ministers had better take care, 
for he was the man who would turn them all out before 
long. 

Camillo Cavour, whose biography is the history of Italy 
from henceforth to the day of his death in 1861, was the 
younger son of a noble Savoyard house, descended, like the 
kings, from Norman ancestry. He got into trouble while 
serving as a military engineer in Genoa in his early youth, 
and in 1835 was sent ^v his family away from Italy for 
several years. A curious paper was found in the police 
archives at Milan, speaking of him when he was about to 
return home as a young man of great ardor and talent, but 
of very dangerous political opinions, and recommending that 
he should if possible not be permitted to re-enter any part 
of Austrian Italy, or, if his passports were all in order, that 
his luggage, clothes, and person should be carefully searched, 
as he was more than likely to be the bearer of revolutionary 
communications. 

About the same time Cavour wrote to a friend who had 
written to him to express her sympathy : " But I can assure 
you that, notwithstanding this, I shall make my way. I 
own I am ambitious, and when I am Minister I hope to jus- 
tify my ambition. In my dreams I see myself already Prime 
Minister of Italy." 

During his absence from his own country he lived princi- 
pally in England, a country for which he felt and expressed 
such high esteem that in after years his enemies called him 
Lord Camillo. He wrote a book on Ireland, and devoted 
himself to the study of agriculture, into which, — although 



1 84 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

he called agriculture the refuge of all defeated parties," — he 
threw himself " with as near an approach to enthusiasm as 
his uneffusive temperament allowed." He earnestly depre- 
cated the absenteeism of landed proprietors, and considered 
wiser and more liberal cultivation of the land the best bar- 
rier against discontent and revolution. 

No less was he interested in commerce. Mr. Cobden on 
his visit to Italy in 1846, to advocate free trade, found in him 
an earnest disciple, and when made Minister of Commerce 
in the early days of Victor Emmanuel, he carried those 
convictions into effect. He was earnest in opening rail- 
roads through Piedmont. He projected the Mont Cenis 
tunnel, which was popularly considered a wholly impracti- 
cable project. But his King presided at the inauguration of 
the work in 1857. 

" We must submit, wait, and prepare " was the saying of 
another great Italian after Novara, and this saying might 
have been called Cavour's watchword. 

Cavour was never a popular man, but, after his elevation 
to the premiership, it soon came to be understood that he 
had arranged affairs in such a way that only himself could 
manage them, and that necessarily, therefore, they must be 
left in his hands. 

He made an alliance with Marquis Rattazzi, leader of the 
Left, though he was himself a Constitutionalist and a Con- 
servative, and he encouraged Rattazzi to push the principle 
of the Sicardi laws somewhat further than had been in- 
tended at the time of their first conception. By degrees he 
arrived at such political importance that he and Victor Em- 
manuel, between them, seemed to hold not only the affairs 
of little Piedmont, but of all Italy in their hands. 

In 1855, while Victor Emmanuel was overwhelmed with 
sorrow for the bereavements that had taken place in his 
own family, the treaty was signed which elevated Sardinia 
almost to the rank of a Great Power, and was in its results 
the making of Italy, — I mean the treaty of alliance be- 
tween England, France, and Sardinia, by which the latter 
bound herself to help the two other allied powers in the 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 85 

Crimean War. Things were not going on prosperously for 
the Allies in the Crimea, and they were glad to accept help. 
Sardinia had her own causes of enmity against Russia. The 
Emperor Nicholas had treated her young sovereign with 
contempt. He it was who had taken upon himself to 
stamp out the revolt against Austria in Hungary. He had 
offered to do the same in Italy, but his proposal was 
declined. 

It was the terrible winter of 1855 ; the English and 
French armies were lying round Sebastopol. It had been 
proposed at first to place the small Sardinian army, fifteen 
thousand men, under the King's brother Ferdinand, the 
Duke of Genoa, but on his death the command was given 
to General La Marmora, although he wholly disapproved of 
the expedition. It needed the eye of a statesman to pierce 
the future and approve the plan. La Marmora's disap- 
proval, indeed, appeared justified when, almost as soon as 
his soldiers landed, cholera broke out amongst them, and 
Alessandro La Marmora, his own elder brother, dearly be- 
loved, died of it almost immediately. 

The Sardinian troops did good service in the Crimean 
War ; their discipline and soldierly qualities extorted great 
praise from their allies, and General La Marmora became a 
hero. They were not at the Alma, Balaclava, or Inkerman, 
but their behavior at the battle of Tchernaya wiped off for- 
ever the reproach that had been bandied about in Europe : 
Les Italiens ne se battent pas. 

In November, 1855, Victor Emmanuel, accompanied by 
Cavour, and by d'Azeglio, set out on a visit to Paris and to 
England. He had been very ill, having persisted in swim- 
ming his horse across a river, when heated with hunting, 
rather than wait for a boat. It was thought, as we some- 
times say in homely phrase, " that he might be better for a 
change." 

The Emperor and Empress of the French were most cor- 
dial to him on his arrival in Paris, showing him all kinds 
of delicate attentions, — for instance, everything provided 
for his own use bore the arms of the house of Savoy. 



1 86 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

D'Azeglio in his apartment found four of his own paintings, 
— d'Azeglio had been an artist when in early life he was an 
exile. But the most important thing in the visit was the 
Emperor's question: What can be done for Italy? — a 
question he and Cavour were to settle between them 
two years later, in their celebrated secret interview at 
Plombieres. 

Then, too, it was that Manin's heart rejoiced, as he saw 
the tricolor of Italy white, green, and red, blended every- 
where with the tricolor of France and the ancient flag of 
England. Victor Emmanuel had steadily refused to yield 
to the persuasions of Austria that he should give up this 
national flag, which symbolized his hopes of a United Italy, 
and return to the plain blue banner of Piedmont. In Paris, 
too, Cavour had several interviews with Manin, then sink- 
ing into his grave from disease, poverty, and sorrow. 
Manin fully agreed with Cavour's views and with his- policy, 
declaring that the first thing to be aimed at was the deliver- 
ance of Italy from the foreigner, and he assured Cavour 
that if the house of Savoy would be true to Italian liberty he 
would, though a Republican, willingly give his allegiance to 
a king of that house, if Italy wished to place herself under 
his constitutional rule. He deprecated the plottings of 
Mazzini, and wrote three admirable letters to him, disap- 
proving the use of such methods as the Carbonari, the In- 
ternationals, the Nihilists, and the Anarchists have been 
known to adopt and sanction, dwelling especially on the 
folly and wickedness of political assassinations. 

When Victor Emmanuel and his ministers visited Eng- 
land, the Queen and Prince Albert were warm in their wel- 
come. When the Queen bestowed upon her guest the 
order of the Garter, the beautiful Duchess of Sutherland 
said that, of all the Knights of St. George that she had ever 
seen, he was the only one who would have had the best of 
it in a fight with the Dragon. 

Victor Emmanuel seems to have had at this time some 
idea of taking a second wife, could he have obtained the 
hand of Princess Mary of Cambridge, but she preferred to 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 87 

marry the Prince of Teck and to take up her residence in 
England. 

The King and his suite were enchanted with everything 
in England except the climate. The mountaineer of Savoy 
did not mind it, but d'Azeglio says : " I suffered the agonies 
of the ififerfia with neuralgia." The Lord Mayor gave the 
Sardinian King a banquet in the City, when Victor Emman- 
uel replied to his welcome in French, for he was not an 
English scholar. 

In December, Turin welcomed her King back again ; 
appreciating him all the more because it found how much 
he was appreciated in other lands. 

Sebastopol had fallen on September 8, 1855, though it 
was nearly a year before the war was fully ended. Then a 
European Congress was assembled in Paris to settle the 
affairs of Europe. Nothing was done about Italy, but 
Cavour was encouraged by the English and French plenipo- 
tentiaries to present a picture of the wrongs of the peoples 
of that land, their condition, and the cruelties practised in 
Naples, Sicily, and the Roman States. Then came the 
return of the Sardinian soldiers from the Crimea. Three 
thousand had died of cholera or in the field. It must have 
been hard for them to understand how, on the shores of 
Southern Russia, they were fighting for the independence of 
Italy, but they did their duty faithfully and bravely, and by 
their help Sardinia had made for herself two good friends, 
having given her assistance to France and England in the 
hour of their necessity. All Italy was full of admiration 
and congratulation for the gallant little army which had so 
well maintained the national honor, and, in spite of the 
jealous watchfulness of their governments, Lombards, Vene- 
tians, Tuscans, Romans, and Neapolitans raised a subscrip- 
tion to give Victor Emmanuel one hundred cannon for his 
fortress of Alessandria, close on the frontier of Piedmont and 
Lombardy. 

Victor Emmanuel and Cavour had two sets of enemies ; 
the Austrians, supported by the reactionary party ; and the 
Republicans, or followers of Mazzini. It was not long after 



1 88 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the Crimean War that England, — Italy's best hope, — 
deserted her in a measure, by making a treaty of alliance 
with Austria, and so blighting, apparently, men's hopes of a 
United Italy. 

In 1858 occurred Orsini's Carbonari attempt against the 
life of Napoleon III., and republican attempts on Victor 
Emmanuel's life were talked of, though he had never been 
a Carbonaro. Constancy, wisdom, and patience had still 
to be the motto of Cavour and of his master ; perhaps we 
may express their policy in the words of their own proverb, 
Chi va piano va sano, chi va sano va lontano ; or in words 
of wisdom addressed by a long-suffering uncle to Orsini 
himself: "Felice, remain quiet. Love your country, but 
love her to do her goo.d, and not to cause her sorrow ; " 
and again, " Undertake nothing without seeing your way 
clear to success. When you do not, it is a crime to attempt 
any revolt or rising." But these views were not held even 
in Piedmont by Italian exiles from other States. Men bred 
in secret societies had no patience, and were all the time 
endeavoring to precipitate events which they could see 
approaching. There was very little statesmanship among 
the Reds of Italy, — or, indeed, among the Reds of other 
lands, so far as I have studied them or known them. 

Felice Orsini may be considered a typical rash, restless 
revolutionist. All his life he never kept himself out of hot 
water, not even long enough to court his wife, or pass his 
honeymoon. Conspiracy was his element, his business in 
life, his joy and his diversion. 

Orsini was born in the Roman States in 18 19. His father 
had served under Napoleon and made the campaign of 
Moscow. He had a severe fall on his head when two 
years old, was unconscious for forty-eight hours, and this 
may have had something to do with unbalancing his mind. 
He was christened Theobaldo, but was always called Felice. 
When twelve years old, living with his uncle at Imola, he 
joined in the morning with schoolboy zeal and pride in 
revolutionary demonstrations in the streets, and in the 
afternoon was enthusiastic in his admiration of the Austrian 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 89 

soldiers who marched into the town to put down the revolu- 
tionists. It was the year 1831, and, as we have seen already, 
all Central Italy was making attempts to effect political 
change. Felice's next escapade was running away to join 
the French who were occupying Ancona, in the hope that 
he might be accepted as a drummer-boy. He was brought 
home, however, and had his ears boxed, an indignity which 
his spirit of independence bitterly resented. In short, a 
more troublesome young lad probably never existed. 
When about fifteen he professed himself a " Liberal," in a 
great measure probably out of opposition to his uncle, who 
was a personal friend of the Bishop of Imola, Cardinal 
Mastai-Ferretti, — the future Pio Nono. 

Of himself he says grandiloquently : " I learnt in Roman 
history the greatness and valor of my country in ancient 
times, and I imbibed the principles of the old republican 
valor ; the ancient Roman heroism woke an echo in my 
heart." No doubt these ideas falling into a hotbed of 
self-will, vanity, recklessness, and a boy's eagerness for 
notoriety, and love of risk, made him the man who passed 
his life from prison to conspiracy during the next twenty- 
four years. He possessed himself of a pair of pistols, he 
associated with Liberals, he talked aloud as he heard them 
talk in secret, he openly despised priests, and filled his 
uncle with terror, for it was a time when spies nourished in 
Romagna, a " time of accusation, arbitrary trials, and uni- 
versal terror." 

One of the pistols that Felice treasured unknown to his 
uncle, went off accidentally one day and killed the family 
cook, who entered the room as he was hurriedly loading it. 
This caused great grief and consternation. The police 
hurried into the house, the accident was suspected to have 
had some connection with politics, and the lad was arrested. 
It might have gone very hard with him had it not been for 
the interposition of the Bishop, toward whom, however, he 
showed little gratitude in after years. 

He was sent out of the Papal States for six months, and 
then the affair blew over, but strong influence was brought 



190 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

to bear on him to induce him to enter a religious order, the 
Jesuits apparently, the clergy thinking that they might make 
something of him, could he be tamed by their discipline, 
and inspired with religious enthusiasm. 

He next became a student at Bologna, where he wasted 
his time, and studied little, except fencing and gymnastics. 
When he was about nineteen, he read Thiers's " Histoire de 
la Revolution Francaise," which filled his whole soul with 
enthusiasm for the principles of '89, and for the heroes and 
the literature of the same period. He saw in every youth 
who pleased him one ready to become a hero, — but who, 
to develop into a hero, must begin as a conspirator. His 
first chance to strike a blow against tyrants occurred, he 
thought, in 1843. He heard of an intended revolt in 
Barcelona, and endeavored to get there and take part in 
it, but by his uncle's vigilance his plan was frustrated. 
Shortly after, there was plenty to be done near home ; 
activity increased among the Liberals ; the severity of the 
papal government knew no bounds. Orsini joined a secret 
society, and drew up plans for revolutionary projects ; one 
of these plans fell into the hands of the authorities, and in 
May, 1844, he was arrested, chained, tried, and sent to the 
galleys for life, but subsequently, on the election of Pio 
Nono, he received pardon through the amnesty. 

On Orsini's release, as Liberalism under the first months 
of Pio Nono's reign seemed to be taking care of itself in 
Rome, he turned his attention to Tuscany, joined a revolu- 
tionary committee, and worked to stimulate risings and so 
provoke reforms. When Florence grew too hot for him, he 
went back to Imola. Up to that time, he says, he had had 
no personal connection with Mazzini. 

Before long he was in Rome, and was enrolled among 
the volunteers who, with the papal troops, marched to as- 
sist Charles Albert in his war with the Austrians. Next 
came the Pope's flight and the establishment of the 
Triumvirate to govern the Roman Republic. Rome itself 
was kept in good order by Ciceruacchio during its republi- 
can days, but anarchy and disorder in the provinces were 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. I9 1 

terrible Orsini was recommended to Mazzini, — who ruled 
over his two co-triumvirs as Napoleon did over his col- 
leagues when First Consul, -as a man of great zeal and 
energy, and he was sent to Ancona to put down political 
assassinations and other enormities, with a high hand. 
Orsini's mode of government, especially his arbitrary im- 
prisonments, drew on him the fury of the citizens and of 
many of the inhabitants of the surrounding country. A 
sort of civil war broke out in Ancona, but Orsini seems to 
have fulfilled his mission, and boasted when he prepared 
to leave Ancona that he had succeeded in restoring order, 
which in that province, had before wholly disappeared. 

Orsini was next sent to Ascoli, where brigands were 
causing much disturbance, crossing the frontier back and 
forth from Naples. They threatened the town with sack 
and murder if they should be denied provisions and 

ammunition. _ 

But meantime the French were besieging Rome, and the 
\ustrians were advancing to supersede the Roman repub- 
lican government in Ancona, to which end they allied 
themselves with the brigands. Orsini, at last, finding that 
he could not hope to reach Rome with his soldiers, left his 
officers to effect a capitulation with the Austnans, and 
escaped in disguise to Genoa. 

He continued to work actively as an agent of the revolu- 
tionary party. He wandered on revolutionary missions 
and in various disguises, into many parts of Central and 
Northern Italy. He had a share in the rising at Genoa 
which gave so much trouble to Victor Emmanuel, also m 
that miserable rising in Milan, which brought Austrian rods 
down on the backs of many persons, guilty or innocent, 
who took,-or seemed to take, - part in it. Frequently 
he was threatened by those whom he had treated with scant 
consideration at Ancona, and was pronounced no Liberal. 

In 1850, Orsini was with Mazzini in Nice, where prepa- 
rations were being made for an important rising against the 
government of Louis Napoleon, and arrangements for a 
revolutionary loan were in progress. This movement was 



192 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

directed from London. Its plans looked well enough on 
paper, but failed wholly in execution. An Italian and a 
French column were to be assisted by many exiled Germans 
and Poles. 

The scheme having failed, Orsini, for about the first and 
only time in his life, had an interval of quiet, though he 
wrote to Mazzini begging to be employed in any desperate 
service. He spent his time at Nice, chiefly in the society 
of English families, and perfected himself in the English 
tongue. He also saw much of the wife of a German poet, 
Madame Emma Herwegh, to whom he subsequently owed 
his life. 

" But conspiracy," he says, " took me before long from 
my friends and my studies." Mazzini wrote : " I keep my 
word, and intrust to you a most dangerous undertaking." 
This was to effect a rising throughout Northern Italy, but 
the whole thing was badly planned. The refugees in 
Genoa, on whom the execution of the scheme mainly de- 
pended, were distrustful and half-hearted. They did not 
confide in the practical good sense of Mazzini. They be- 
lieved him to be a man of theories and not of action. The 
attempt was made by a few individuals only ; some were 
punished ; the whole affair failed, although Orsini still con- 
tinued to act as " walking delegate" in the cause of 
conspiracy and revolution. The government of Piedmont 
finally arrested him at Nice, and then decided to banish 
him. He went to London, and there took rank as a lead- 
ing Italian patriot, and was one of those exiled revolution- 
ists assembled at the celebrated dinner given to Kossuth by 
Mr. Saunders, the American consul. Garibaldi, Ledru- 
Rollin, Mazzini, and Pulsky were among the other guests 
on the occasion. 

After a brief stay in England, Orsini was off again on 
another mission. This was to land a cargo of arms at 
Massa. The arms were indeed landed, but orders had 
gone wrong. The two hundred young men who obtained 
them (with very little ammunition) were not disposed to 
obey Orsini, when he cried " Follow me ! and we will 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 93 

attack the first band of carbineers we meet." They 
answered this foolhardy proposition by the cry, " No ! By 
Heaven, we will not die the death of the brothers Ban- 
diera ! " So the affair was over, — happily this time with- 
out useless shedding of blood. Even Orsini learned 
something by experience, and ceased to approve Mazzini's 
methods, saying : " What can an expedition of thirty, forty, 
or a hundred exiles do? " 

Nevertheless, Mazzini having proposed to him "to take 
part in a brilliant affair in the Valtellina," he announced 
himself ready, and prepared for an expedition into Southern 
Switzerland and Northern Lombardy. His associates were 
an Italian and a Hungarian. Mazzini was to be director 
in chief of the expedition. Orsini and his colleagues were 
to take charge of its military affairs. But the Valtellina 
proved to have no thought of rising. Everything went 
wrong. The Swiss police captured Orsini, but, by help of 
a Swiss servant girl and a Russian lady, he contrived to 
escape. He wandered about Switzerland for some time, 
contriving to avoid recapture, while others were arrested. 

Next, in September, 1854, Mazzini put forth a new plan 
— I need not give its details, though the plan lies before 
me, but its object was to organize a band of death, — 
"eighty young men. robust and decided," armed with 
daggers, who should, in parties of three, go into Austrian 
camps, associate with the officers and soldiers, create no 
suspicions, and wait quietly till, on a day and hour agreed 
upon, each should thrust his dagger into the heart of an 
Austrian officer. " For," says Mazzini, "when the Austrian 
army has lost its officers, it is lost." 

Orsini was ready, though with some misgivings, observ- 
ing that " against the Austrian oppressor who does not 
scruple to violate every oath and every law of justice, 
Italians are justified in using every means in their power 
to put the oppressor down." 

The eighty young men, however, were not to be found. 
Orsini next set out for Transylvania and the Danubian 
provinces, where regiments, composed of Lombards in the 

13 



194 ITALY IX THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

Austrian service, might be found. His mission was to stir 
up mutiny in these regiments, and induce the soldiers to 
kill their officers, — a task analogous to that undertaken 
three years later in India, for which those engaged in 
corrupting Sepoy troops were blown from guns. 

However, Orsini did not earn* out his mission. He was 
recognized by a Jew, arrested soon after he reached Hun- 
gary, and sent in chains to Vienna. Thence he was 
consigned to the strong fortress of Mantua, and placed 
in one of the condemned cells, though before trial. 

Here he contrived to find means to correspond with his 
friend, Madame Herwegh, and to procure from her money, 
opium, and saws. He seems to have been treated with 
considerable indulgence, both by his jailers and the author- 
ities. — he says, " because they found that I was not a man 
who tried to parry, but was a known and approved enemy. 
I speak frankly. I know my fate, and I am prepared. 
I have declared that I love my country — that I will 
compromise no one." 

He sawed the bars of his cell, and on the night of March 
26 he prepared to escape. But when he gazed down the 
immense height that he would have to descend into the 
ditch, and reflected that he would then have to mount 
the counterscarp, his heart failed him. He had previously 
tried to stupefy both jailers and sentinels by opium, but his 
plan had failed. 

Two days later, however, he made the descent. 

Here is his own account, published afterwards in an Eng- 
lish paper : — 

••In twenty-four days I had cut away seven of the inside bars, 
and one of the outside ones, and had extracted from the wall 
eight bricks, which I hid in the straw of my mattress. As for 
the cord, I had thought of that before. On February 1, I had 
kept back without my jailers' knowledge the sheets I ought to 
have sent to the wash, and on the 1st of March I kept back the 
towels, which were as wide as the sheets and a little longer. By 
cutting these in strips I made my cord. ... On the night of 
March 30 I lay still on my bed till after the last visit of my jail- 
ers, at half-past one. Then I let myself down by the cord. 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 95 

When about six yards from the ground I felt I could no longer 
sustain myself. I looked at the depth below me, and let myself 
drop. A sort of swoon came over me. ... I had injured one 
foot and was lame, but I dragged myself round and round the 
castle in the ditch, hoping to escape into the lake, but it was 
barred by a grating." 

Then he endeavored to climb the side of the ditch, which 
was eighteen feet high, but he fell back exhausted. He lay 
in the ditch till dawn, when some peasants passed, to whom 
he called, saying he had been drunk overnight and had 
fallen over the embankment. They helped him out, and he 
lay all day concealed in some long reeds. He had, appar- 
ently, confederates in the city who provided him with food, 
a razor, and some brandy, and at nine o'clock in the eve- 
ning he was dragged (for he could not walk) to a yard where 
he was covered with straw. There he remained eight days 
while pursuit was hot, but at last he got away to Genoa, and 
thence back to England. Here he was made a kind of 
hero. He published a book on "Austrian Prisons"; he 
gave lectures all over the country. He was handsome, — 
the beau idfal of a conspirator, with flashing eyes, and long 
black hair. Many people invited him to their houses and 
were kind to him, among them a Mr. Thomas Alsop. Walter 
Savage Landor also received him as a guest at his house in 
Bath. 

I have told the story of Orsini at some length, — a length 
disproportioned, it may seem, to its importance, — because 
it shows so clearly what Victor Emmanuel and Cavour had 
to contend with from the hot-headed republicans who ac- 
cepted the lead of Mazzini. From the hour of Victor Em- 
manuel's accession to 1859 there was a perpetual eruption 
of conspiracy going on in all parts of Italy, under the active 
superintendence of Mazzini, who, however, strange to say, 
never seems to have adventured himself personally in these 
revolutionary risings. Cavour and Victor Emmanuel found 
it harder to deal with these hot-headed revolutionary com- 
patriots than even with the Austrians. They crossed the 
well-laid plans of statesmanship in every direction. While 



I96 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the rulers of Piedmont were strengthening their bonds of 
alliance with the Emperor Napoleon, and believed that the 
foreign aid they deemed essential, if Italy would cope with 
Austria, would come by way of France and its Carbonaro 
Emperor, " that sovereign was regarded by no inconsider- 
able number of Italians as the greatest, if not the sole, ob- 
stacle to their liberation," and with many the idea arose 
that the greatest service that could be rendered to their 
country would be the removal of this sovereign from the 
political scene. Then would a French Republic be estab- 
lished after the pattern of that of 1792, — and would carry 
propaganda throughout Europe, sweeping away tyrannies, 
and establishing republics everywhere. 

Mazzini offered Orsini further employment in Italy, but 
Orsini answered, somewhat coldly, that when he again ven- 
tured his life in the republican cause he should prefer to 
act by himself. 

He, however, wrote to Cavour, asking for a passport to 
return to Italy, offering to place himself at the service of the 
Sardinian government, provided it would leave off wavering 
and show its unmistakable purpose of achieving the inde- 
pendence of Italy. 

Cavour was not going to have his hand forced by a rest- 
less and irresponsible individual. He returned no answer, 
though he said later that the letter was a noble one. 

Then Orsini determined to act for himself. He procured 
the assistance of two men, one a Dr. Simon Barnard, who 
made explosive bombs for him in Birmingham ; the other 
an Italian named Pieri, who was to assist him in flinging the 
bombs. 

Having taken out a passport in London in the name of 
Thomas Alsop, he proceeded early in January, 1858, to 
Paris, and on the 14th of January, just as the carriage con- 
taining the Emperor and Empress was drawing up to the 
opera-house, he flung his missiles. No less than one hun- 
dred and fifty-six persons were wounded ; ten were killed, 
and five hundred and sixteen wounds were inflicted by the 
explosion; but the Emperor and Empress were hardly 



VICTOR EMMANUEL. 1 97 

harmed. Prince Ernest of Saxe-Coburg was awaiting the 
arrival of the imperial party at the opera-house, and has given 
in his memoirs a very graphic description of the scene. 

Orsini, when asked, on his trial, what he had expected 
would happen had he succeeded in killing the Emperor, 
answered : " We were convinced that the surest way of 
making a revolution in Italy was to make a revolution in 
France, and that the surest way of making a revolution in 
France was to kill the Emperor." 

From the very first days of his reign, Napoleon III. had 
been perplexed by his relations to Italy. He and his 
brother had taken the oaths of Carbonari, they had even 
fought for Italy in 183 1. It has never been certain that 
Napoleon Louis did not die by a Carbonaro's knife, instead 
of by the measles ; and it is probable that the Emperor 
knew that if he failed to do anything to promote the 
cause of independence in Italy assassination surely awaited 
him. 

Besides this, his sympathies were sincerely enlisted in the 
Italian cause. The affair at Rome had been a great dis- 
appointment to him. When the Romans defeated a French 
army it would have been as much as his throne was worth 
to refrain from obtaining a victory over them. He said re- 
peatedly that he had never expected the Pope on his return 
would take cruel vengeance on his revolted subjects. He 
endeavored to press on him reforms, and clemency; and 
he was never easy under the position in which events at 
Rome had placed him. It should never be forgotten, even 
in judging Louis Napoleon's policy, that he was a kind- 
hearted man. 

"Even-thing," says the Countess Cesaresco, "was done to 
make Orsini a hero in the eyes of the French public. Jules 
Favre defended him, pleading, not for the life, but for the honor 
of his client. Orsini's own letter to the Emperor from his prison, 
produced a powerful impression, not only on him to whom it was 
addressed, but on the public ; there was a dramatic interest cre- 
ated in the man who, disdaining to crave clemency for himself, 
tried a last supreme effort in appealing for the country he had 



198 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

loved so well. ' Deliver my fatherland,' was the conclusion of 
the letter, ' and the blessings of twenty-five million citizens will 
be with you.' " 

The Emperor made every effort to save Orsini, but his 
ministers and the Chambers insisted on his execution ; doubt- 
less Orsini himself may have approved it. There is no 
question that he had much communication with the Empe- 
ror through Pietri, the chief of police, who was an Italian, 
and it is said that the Emperor visited him at Mazas before 
his execution. 

Thus the fears, the sympathies, the policy of Napoleon 
III., all prompted him to make speedy alliance with Victor 
Emmanuel on behalf of the independence of Italy, and he 
sent Orsini's letter to Cavour. 

On the scaffold, Orsini was upborne by the strongest 
hope that the fulfilment of his life's wish, the independence 
of his country, would not be postponed long. It is said he 
had received a solemn promise to that effect from the 
Emperor Napoleon. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 

TT was in July, 1858, five months after the execution of 
■*■ Orsini, that Cavour received an invitation from the 
Emperor Napoleon to meet him secretly at the little sum- 
mer resort of Plombieres, situated in the Vosges, and not 
far from the old conventual settlement for royal and distin- 
guished ladies at Remiremont. 

Some sharp words had passed between Count Walewski 
and Cavour on the subject of the overflow of restless, 
scheming Italian exiles into Piedmont ; and while Cavour 
maintained the dignity and independence of Piedmont in 
his correspondence on this subject with other diplomatists, 
he introduced a bill into the Piedmontese Parliament to 
punish conspirators who laid plots in that country against 
the life of any sovereign. 

This harboring of exiles gave great offence to Austria, 
and relations between Piedmont and herself became so 
dangerously strained, that England and Russia proposed a 
European congress to preserve peace. There were fierce 
disputes concerning the composition of this congress, 
Austria at first insisting that Piedmont should take no part 
in it ; then that she could only appear in it as a secondary 
Power, while, meantime, both Piedmont and Austria armed 
for war, and their troops stood facing each other on the 
Lombard frontier. No congress, however, took place. 

The Emperor and Cavour, at their meeting in July, came 
to an understanding, but the Emperor stipulated for pro- 
found secrecy, and also that Austria must be the aggressor 
in the coming war. 



200 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

On New Year's Day, 1859, words spoken by the Emperor 
to the Austrian ambassador at his reception gave indica- 
tion of what might be at hand in the coming year ; while 
Cavour labored to keep his own outspoken sovereign from 
raising premature hopes in Italy on New Year's Day, when 
he, too, received diplomatists and deputations. There was 
no Austrian ambassador at Turin at that time ; diplomatic 
relations with Vienna had been for some months broken off. 
While the King received the ambassadors and senators, he 
kept closely to the instructions of Cavour, but when it came 
to the turn of the city magistrates, out of the fulness of his 
heart his mouth spake, in spite of prudence. " Forgive 
me," he said afterwards to Cavour, " I followed your advice 
as long as possible, but I really could not keep in any 
longer. The magistrates alluded to the important events of 
last year, — I told them that I looked for more important 
events in the year to come." Cavour, who had a strong 
sense of humor, laughed loud and long. 

The Piedmontese Parliament was to assemble ten days 
later. The King was to open it with a speech from the 
throne. Cavour insisted that he must not say anything that 
might give the alarm to Austria, or sound like a declaration 
of war. " Then, if I cannot speak clearly, I had better say 
nothing," said the straightforward sovereign, but the more 
diplomatic Cavour succeeded at last in convincing him that 
something must be said, and they spent the ten days com- 
posing together a speech " that should unite brevity and 
clearness, prudence and boldness, frankness and reticence." 
A draft of the composition was forwarded to the French 
Emperor for his approval, and he added the few memorable 
words at the close. " We are not insensible to the cry of 
anguish that comes to us from other parts of Italy." When 
Victor Emmanuel uttered these words, with flashing eyes 
and startling emphasis, the Chamber and the spectators 
went wild with enthusiasm. This is what has been said of 
the scene by one who witnessed it. 

" At every pause the speech was interrupted by clamorous 
approbation, and cries of Viva il Re ! But when he came to 




COUNT CAVOUR. 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 201 

the words ' a cry of anguish,' — un grido di dolore, — there 
was confusion indescribable. Senators, deputies, spectators, all 
sprang to their feet with a bound, and broke into passionate 
exclamations. The ministers of France, Russia, Prussia, and 
England were utterly astonished, and carried away by the mar- 
vellous spectacle. The Neapolitan ambassador turned pale. 
We poor exiles did not even attempt to wipe the tears that 
flowed copiously from our eyes, as we frantically clapped our 
hands in applause of that King who had remembered our griefs, 
and had promised us a country. ... He reigned in our hearts, 
and was already our King ! " 

From all parts of Italy came young volunteers of all 
classes to join the army that was to resist the troops of 
hated Austria. Garibaldi had been already summoned 
from Caprera, and was charged to raise a corps called 
Hunters of the Alps. The only Italians who did not rejoice 
were those who formed what was called the Clerical Party, 
and Mazzini and his immediate followers. They saw in the 
movement nothing but dynastic ambition on the part of 
Victor Emmanuel, and prophesied, — too truly, — the loss 
of Savoy and Nice to Piedmont. 

For, in truth, the help of France, which was essential to 
resuscitate Italy, had to be paid for. The Emperor's 
Italian projects, though dear to himself, were not popular in 
France, and something had to be done to propitiate the 
French people. It was one of the cherished projects of 
Napoleon III. to make the eastern frontier of France what 
it had been under his uncle ; and he demanded of Victor 
Emmanuel the cession of Nice and Savoy to France, in 
return for his assistance in humbling the power of Austria 
in Italy. He also is thought to have had projects of mak- 
ing a descendant of Murat king of the Two Sicilies, and his 
cousin, Prince Jerome Napoleon, ruler of Tuscany. He 
demanded the hand of the Princess Clotilde, Victor 
Emmanuel's eldest daughter, for this cousin, a man more 
than twice her age, of disorderly life, rough manners, and 
fantastic opinions. 

Both these conditions were terribly distasteful to Victor 
Emmanuel. Savoy was the cradle of his race ; his mother- 



202 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

less daughter was very dear to him. It is true that there 
was to be a plebiscite in Savoy and Nice to see if the people 
would willingly belong to France or not, and the free con- 
sent of Princess Clotilde was to be a condition of the 
marriage. 

The poor young girl could not but feel repugnance to her 
fate, but she was a true daughter of Italy, and when Cavour 
set before her how the assistance of the French Emperor in 
the cause of Italy depended upon her, — the Iphigenia of 
modern history, — she consented. When Cavour related 
what had passed between them to a friend, he spoke of the 
courage and self-devotion of the young girl with tears in his 
eyes. The marriage took place January 29, 1859, — there 
could not have been much time for bridal preparations, — 
and the married pair set off at once for Genoa, on their 
way to France. 

Princess Clotilde found a warm friend in the Empress 
Eugenie, and a coarse, hard man in her husband. One 
sees a little glimpse of their married life in an anecdote 
that is told of them at the deathbed of the old king, Jerome 
Bonaparte. He was dying without religious consolations, 
and, in the absence of his son, Prince Jerome Napoleon, a 
priest was brought in, who prayed and administered to him 
the last sacraments. Prince Napoleon came in just as this 
was over. "Do not be angry with Clotilde," said the 
Empress, " I sent for the cure." The Prince glared angrily 
at the women, and left the room, banging the door behind 
him. 

Poor Princess Clotilde had two boys and a daughter. Her 
eldest son, Prince Victor Napoleon, is the cousin to whom 
the Prince Imperial left any rights he might have to the 
French throne. Princess Lsetitia has rather scandalized 
Protestantism by marrying (under a dispensation) her 
uncle, the widowed Duke of Aosta. The Princess Clotilde 
escaped from Paris on the same night as the Empress 
Eugenie, in September, 1870, but she refused to use any 
subterfuges, saying : " A daughter of Savoy can know no 
fear." After that she lived in Italy. Every year her hus- 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 203 

band and herself met for a few weeks at some watering- 
place, that they might together take counsel as to the 
welfare of their sons. 

However, to return to the war. The treaty with France 
having been signed shortly after the marriage, and war 
preparations being well advanced, it became a great object 
with Cavour and his King that Austria should take the first 
step toward a declaration of hostilities, since French assist- 
ance was only to be sent to Piedmont in case she was 
attacked by her powerful enemy. 

There were many diplomatic negotiations to prevent the 
war, England being very much averse to any further dis- 
turbance of the treaties of Vienna, which gave Austria, 
directly or by influence, control over Italy. Cavour made 
a journey to Paris to see the Emperor, and to Berlin to visit 
the King of Prussia. On his return to Turin the people 
received him with an ovation. Next morning he was be- 
ginning to tell the King all about his popular triumph after 
nightfall, when Victor Emmanuel interrupted him. " I 
know all about it, my dear Count," he said. " I was in 
the crowd, unrecognized in the darkness, shouting till I was 
hoarse, Viva Cavour!''' 

On April 23, 1859, Austria cut negotiations short by 
sending her ultimatum to Sardinia. The little kingdom 
was summoned to disarm in three days, otherwise her 
powerful neighbor would declare war. 

The King made his will, appointed his cousin Eugenio, 
Prince of Carignano, to be regent, told his people that 
Napoleon III. was his ally, and ended his proclamation 
with the words : " We confide in God and in our honesty 
of purpose. We confide in the valor of Italian soldiers, and 
in the alliance of the noble French nation. We confide in 
the justice of public opinion. I have no other ambi- 
tion than to be the first soldier of Italian independence. 
Viva r Italia!" 

Before leaving Turin, the King called to him Count 
Nigra, and confided to him his children. " Here is my 
testament," he said. " If I should be killed, open it, and 



204 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

see that my will is executed. I will try to bar the road to 
Turin, but if I should not succeed, and the enemy ad- 
vances, remove my family to a place of safety, and scrupu- 
lously follow my instructions. In the Gallery of Arms you 
will find four Austrian banners taken by our soldiers in the 
war of 1848, and placed there by my father. ... If need 
be, abandon everything else, — valuables, jewels, archives, 
collections, — but save the banners. So that they and my 
children are safe, the rest does not matter." 

Next morning a solemn service was held early in the 
Cathedral, the King kneeling at the altar, asking Heaven's 
blessing on his enterprise ; then, accompanied all along his 
road by the cheers and acclamations of his people, he 
passed on to the frontier fortress of Alessandria, defended 
by its hundred cannon that Italian patriots had given him 
by subscription. 

" It was fine," wrote an eye-witness, "to see him ride up the 
ranks of his soldiers, or in the midst of his people, as he ac- 
knowledged with dignity their enthusiastic evvivas, — but, 
finest of all, when, in the heat of battle, he flung himself with 
impetuous valor on the enemy." 

And a French officer describes him thus, as he entered 
Alessandria : — 

" A great noise was heard ; we distinguished the tramp of 
horses, and cries of enthusiasm. A minute after, I saw King 
Victor Emmanuel. I recognized his countenance by its rugged 
features, such as one might see by many a humble fireside. 
There was that eye, ardent, yet soft, which darted a straight, 
bold glance over a provokingly aggressive pair of moustachios. 
. . . From this day forth I shall think a king on horseback in 
a moment of danger is a sight to make the heart beat. Lamar- 
tine once said, ' Horses are the pedestals of princes.' I shall 
never forget Victor Emmanuel as I first saw him on horseback, 
with his sabre by his side, breathing freely and joyously the 
warrior air of Alessandria, as an atmosphere suited to his lungs. 
Other memories, as well as mine, will preserve this image." 

La Marmora remonstrated with the King about rushing 
into danger. Victor Emmanuel, in a moment of irritation, 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 205 

answered him rudely. But La Marmora, undeterred, got 
a friend who was a civilian to speak on the same subject. 
" Say to the gentleman in whose name you have addressed 
me," said the King, " that in a few days I must send to 
death who knows how many thousand men. I have not the 
courage to send them to meet death, if I do not act so as 
to let them see that the cause is such as deserves we 
should all meet it if need be, and that I myself am ready to 
do so." These words produced a most inspiriting effect 
upon the soldiers. 

The first action of the war was very near being disastrous 
to the Sardinian army, and led to a fierce altercation be- 
tween La Marmora and his sovereign. La Marmora's 
advice prevailed, however; a panic impending among the 
troops was stayed, and next day Victor Emmanuel wrote 
La Marmora an affectionate apology. Had Napoleon III. 
had such men about him, history might have been very 
different. 

On the 30th of April, 1859, French troops began to 
arrive at Turin, and on May 13 the Emperor himself, with 
his Imperial Guard and the remainder of his army, landed 
at Genoa. The Italians warmly welcomed the French 
troops, and the two sovereigns conceived a sincere 
friendship for each other. 

The plains that lay between the frontier and Turin 
were soon flooded, the farmers assisting the soldiers to 
destroy their own property with enthusiasm. But letters 
written from the Austrian camp assert that the Piedmontese 
peasantry, oppressed by the weight of taxes, showed them- 
selves very willing to welcome the Austrian troops, provided 
they paid for what they took from them. No money, how- 
ever, seems to have been able to procure for the Austrian 
commander, General Gyulai, any information. His army, 
on its entrance into Piedmont, was sadly in need of 
spies. 

The inundation of the fields, assisted by rainy weather, 
greatly impeded the Austrian advance, and gave time for the 
concentration of the French troops with the Sardinians. 



206 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

Volunteers from all parts of Italy, — nobles, peasants, stu- 
dents and professional men, nocked to the standard of the 
Italian king, and these were mainly put under the com- 
mand of Garibaldi, who, from this time forward was truly 
and personally attached to the Re Galantuomo. 

His corps carried on a guerilla warfare in Northern Lom- 
bard}-, in the neighborhood of the Lakes of Como and 
Maggiore, while a division of the French army under Prince 
Napoleon had been landed at Leghorn, to operate in the 
duchies of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany. 

The first battle of the campaign was fought May 20, at 
Montebello between the Austrians and the Sardinians. The 
second took place May 31, at Palestro, and was very stoutly 
contested. The valor of the French Zouaves, and the dar- 
ing of Victor Emmanuel, however, decided the fortunes of 
the day. In the thick of the fight, when victory was doubt- 
ful, Victor Emmanuel was seen galloping to the front, sword 
in hand, waving on French and Italians to defend an im- 
portant bridge. The sight of their King inspired the Pied- 
montese with fresh ardor and the Zouaves, with a cry of 
Vive V Empereur ! threw themselves precipitately along with 
their allies upon the enemy. 

" The Zouaves were lost in admiration of Victor Emmanuel's 
gallantry. He was the first of Zouaves, they said, for he would 
listen to no reason. The French standard-bearer fell at his feet 
struck by two balls, but he rushed on into the midst of the fire, 
regardless of the remonstrances of the Zouaves. It was im- 
prudent and rash, for too much depended on his life to give him 
any right to risk it inconsiderately. At one moment he was in 
the greatest peril : from thousands of breasts rose a cry of ter- 
ror : the Zouaves, the staff-officers, the Bersaglieri, all, with hor- 
ror in their faces, threw themselves upon the enemy.' - ' 

The day was won, and the king was safe. That night the 
Zouaves elected King Victor Emmanuel a corporal in their 
third regiment, and sent to his headquarters the cannon they 
had taken from the enemy. These he forwarded to the Em- 
peror, and sent heartfelt thanks to his new comrades. Next 
day Napoleon said to him : " Now that you belong to my 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 207 

army, I have a right to reprove your imprudence. If you 
act again as you did yesterday I shall put you under 
arrest." 

As Victor Emmanuel the next day walked over the bat- 
tlefield, saddened by the terrible sights he saw there, he 
came to where a young Roman lay dying. At sight of the 
King his eyes brightened. " Raise my head," he said. 
" Let me look at him again — my hero ! — my King ! " 
Then, as the King bent over him, he whispered : " God 
bless you, Savior of Italy ! By this blood, by the glory of 
your throne, by the memory of your martyred father, I con- 
jure you to make our whole country free ! " The King, 
with tears, renewed his vow, holding the dying soldier's 
hand, as he bent over him. 

About four days later, on the 4th of June, was fought 
the battle of Magenta. The troops engaged in it were 
chiefly French and Austrians. It was not a brilliant victory ; 
both armies fought well, but there were faults of generalship 
on both sides. The battle was fought upon the soil of Lom- 
bardy, the allied forces having crossed the boundary line, 
the river Ticino. 

" It was in the little village of Magenta that the fight raged 
the hottest. There, in the narrow streets, in the gardens and 
inclosures, among the whitewashed, red-roofed houses, under 
the loopholed walls of the cemetery, Austrian and Frenchman, 
Jager and Zouave, fought bayonet to bayonet, while from roofs 
and windows a sharp fire poured down upon the combatants 
below. A volume might be written on the storming of Ma- 
genta, so many were the tales told at the time of the desperate 
courage displayed on either side. . . . Slowly the daylight 
deepened into twilight, for a terrible storm had raged during the 
day, and a red sunset was now glowing in the west. As night 
fell, the Austrians drew off from the battlefield, but it was late 
before the last shot was fired and silence fell. 

" Along the fields blazed the watch-fires of the Austrian 
bivouacs. Those of the French illumined with their flickering 
light the ground they had won. A crescent moon looked down 
from a clear sky. Here and there along the field flashed the 
lanterns of the fatigue-parties who were already collecting the 
wounded, — for, heaped in the villages and scattered over the 



208 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

fields, ten thousand Austrians and Frenchmen lay wounded, 
dying, or dead." 1 

The day after the battle of Magenta, the French and Sar- 
dinian troops, with their respective sovereigns, entered 
Milan, the capital of Lombardy. Lombardy, with an out- 
burst of enthusiasm, implored Victor Emmanuel at once to 
declare himself its king. 

Victor Emmanuel unfortunately had, as we have seen, an 
inconvenient habit of saying too much. In the proclama- 
tion in which he accepted the crown of Lombardy, he said : 
" The Emperor of the French, our generous ally, worthy of 
the name and genius of Napoleon, wishes to liberate Italy 
from the Alps to the Adriatic." This sentence, which was 
received with enthusiasm, led a few weeks later to bitter 
disappointment. 

The Emperor Napoleon had been greatly moved by the 
paroxysm of enthusiasm with which he and the King of 
Piedmont had been received as saviors in Milan, and is 
said to have exclaimed : " How this people must have suf- 
fered ! " He, too, took the occasion to put forth a procla- 
mation to "the Italian people," saying : — 

"Your enemies, who are also mine, have endeavored to dimi- 
nish the universal sympathy felt in Europe for your cause, by 
causing it to be believed that I am making war for personal am- 
bition, or to increase French territory. If there are men who 
fail to comprehend their epoch. I am not one of them. . . . 
True greatness lies in the moral influence which we exercise, 
not in sterile conquests. . . ." And the proclamation ended with 
the words : " Tomorrow you will be the citizens of a great 
country." 

In Milan, Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi met for the 
first time. 

" Hitherto," says Mr. Godkin, in his " Life of Victor Emman- 
uel," which I have freely quoted, " Garibaldi had earned a rep- 

1 " The Making of Italy," by the O'Clery. The author served sub- 
sequently among the Pontifical Zouaves. His book is inimical to 
Victor Emmanuel, and written from the point of view of the Holy See. 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 209 

Titation somewhat like that of the Irishman who, on landing in 
America, cried out: ' Is there any government in this country ? 
— because if there is, I 'm agin it!' But thenceforward, with 
a few intervals of distrust and disappointment, he yielded to the 
love and admiration he felt for Victor Emmanuel. To a king 
like Victor the voluntary homage of this wild republican was 
very pleasing, and Garibaldi was not insensible to the tone of 
brotherly equality with which he was met by il Re Galantuomo. 
The king put the gold medal for military valor on the breast 
of the brave general, who was proud to receive it from his 
hands, not because he was a king, but because he was a hero 
and a patriot." 

On June 24 took place the last battle of the war, the 
fight at Solferino. The Italians call it the battle of San 
Martino, for their part of the action was carried on, on a hill 
of that name. General Gyulai had been displaced, and the 
young Emperor Francis Joseph commanded in person, but 
the Austrians fought apparently without any fixed plan, and 
the different divisions seem to have had little idea of what was 
being done by the others. The most bloody part of the work 
was at San Martino, where the Sardinians were confronted 
by the division commanded by the best of the Austrian 
commanders, General Benedek. Piqued by a piece of im- 
pertinence on the part of Baraguay d'Hilliers, the French 
marshal, who was commanding at Solferino, Victor Emman- 
uel made incredible exertions to secure possession of the 
San Martino hill. " Children ! " he said to his soldiers, 
"we must take San Martino, — or it will be San Martino 
with us!" — thus alluding to a custom which made St. 
Martin's day, like the 1st of May in New York, a day of gen- 
eral moving. 

The battle ended in a frightful storm, preceded by a mov- 
ing wall of yellow mist, not uncommon in that country, 
which the French took for the advance on their flank of a 
large column of Austrians. They were thrown into great 
confusion, and a panic began, especially among the baggage 
train, but the Austrians were already crossing the Mincio 
into Venetia, and a few more days were to end the war. 

Among the Austrian dead was a lad whose musket had 

14 



2IO ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

never been loaded. He died whispering to the man who 
killed him that he was a Venetian who had been forced to 
serve the Austrians, but would never fire on his country- 
men, and preferred to be killed by them. He died clasp- 
ing the Bersagliere's hand. After the fight was over, his 
countrymen stripped off his white Austrian uniform, and 
buried him reverently with their own dead. Mrs. Brown- 
ing wrote a poem on this incident, called " The forced 
Recruit." 

It has been always believed that the frightful scenes wit- 
nessed by Louis Napoleon on this battlefield, where twenty- 
five thousand men were killed or wounded, largely influenced 
him to bring the war to a close. He was naturally tender- 
hearted, and all accounts describe the scene of carnage on 
which the sun rose the next day as most horrible. 

" And," says Countess Cesaresco, " even a field of battle with 
its unburied dead speaks only of a small part of the miseries of 
a great war. Those who were at that time at Brescia, to which 
town the greater portion of the French wounded, and all the worst 
cases were brought, still shudder as they recall the dreadful 
human suffering which no skill or devotion could do more than 
a very little to assuage. The Brescian ladies turned with one 
accord into sisters of charity. Every house, every church, be- 
came a hospital ; everything that gratitude or pity could do, 
was done. But many were to leave their bones in Italy, and 
how many more to go home maimed for life, or bearing with 
them the seeds of death ! " 

Louis Napoleon's policy was full of surprises, but no sur- 
prise was ever so great, so sudden, so unprovided against, 
as that which startled Europe like a thunder-clap three days 
later. 

The Emperor had sent his confidential friend and aide- 
de-camp, General Fleury, to the Emperor Francis Joseph, 
who was then at Verona, asking for a cessation of 
hostilities ! 

It is now nearly forty years since that cry of " Hold ! — 
Enough!" fell on the ears of the allied armies and the 
Austrian forces, each of which fancied itself still certain of 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 211 

victory. We know more now than astute diplomatists did 
then, and can better appreciate the Emperor's motives. 

First, then, he found the war more and more unpopular 
in France ; even victory had failed to excite any great show 
of enthusiasm. French tax-payers, and the fathers and 
mothers of peasant families, asked what was France to gain 
for all this expenditure of money and blood ? Secondly, 
the next step in advance would place the French army 
within the Quadrilateral. The Austrians had fought splen- 
didly during the last month ; what might they not effect 
when assisted by stone walls? and a repulse upon such 
ground might bring disaster irretrievable. Thirdly, the 
Emperor had realized that inadequacy and incapacity 
reigned in every one of his departments for military supply. 
The deficiencies which became patent to all Europe twelve 
years after were becoming apparent in this earlier cam- 
paign. But his strongest motive for making an immediate 
peace, and not completing the fulfilment of the prom- 
ise Victor Emmanuel had made in his name, — that Italy 
should " be free from the Alps to the Adriatic," — was at the 
time a diplomatic secret. It is now matter of history that 
Germany, always watching her opportunity to make the 
Rhine her boundary, had massed troops on her western 
frontier, and was about to attack France, in the absence of 
her Emperor, as the natural ally of Austria. 

On the evening of the 6th of July, only seven weeks and 
six days after Napoleon had landed with the flower of his 
forces at Genoa, a rumor spread that Fleury had been sent 
with a message to the Emperor Francis Joseph at Verona. 
Victor Emmanuel knew nothing of it, nor had Louis Napo- 
leon confided in his generals. The next day General 
Fleury came back with news that the Emperor of Austria 
accepted the armistice. He, too, had his reasons for bring- 
ing the war quickly to a close, even at the cost of Lom- 
bardy. " Further secrecy was impossible, and like light- 
ning the news flashed through the world." 

Apparently without consulting Victor Emmanuel, the two 
emperors met at Villafranca, and arranged the terms of 



212 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the armistice. It was not a treaty, — the treaty was signed 
some months later, when Louis Napoleon could feel more 
sure of his plans. 

The news of the armistice struck Cavour like a thunder- 
bolt. He was in Turin at the time, but he hurried with all 
speed to headquarters, hearing on every side as he travelled 
alone and incognito, in hired vehicles, curses both loud and 
deep on the Emperor who had so unexpectedly deceived 
them, nor was Victor Emmanuel himself spared. 

In 1848 Lombardy had refused to accept freedom on con- 
dition that she should give up Venetia, which, for the sake 
of its maritime advantages, was of great value to Austria; 
and now was she, in her hour of hope and triumph, to accept 
as a boon from the French Emperor the same terms? 

In Venice itself the news was received with indignation 
and despair. The very morning that the armistice was 
signed at Villafranca, her citizens, standing upon her Cam- 
panile and on their highest towers and roofs, had watched 
for the coming of the French fleet which was that very day 
to bring them reinforcements, and to fulfil, as they believed, 
the promises held out to them. They saw the French ships 
in the offing, steaming and sailing towards them. Hope 
was high, when all at once there came a change of course. 
The ships headed suddenly on an opposite tack, and sailed 
or steamed away. Their commander had received counter 
orders. Venice and Venetia were left to fight the whole 
power of Austria alone. 

Cavour had been wholly unprepared for the cessation of 
the war. For the first and only time he lost his self- 
command. When he reached the presence of his King, he 
raged and stormed with fury, declared that his sovereign 
ought to refuse Lombardy, and when he found that his 
arguments, his reproaches, and his grief availed nothing, he 
left the King's presence, having given in his resignation. 
In three days he had grown older by many years. 

But the King did not despair as Cavour did. He looked 
forward to the future, and events justified his faith. He 
had done all in his power, when he heard of the terms of 



/ 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 2 I 3 

the armistice, to persuade his ally to carry on the war, but 
the Emperor was immovable. He said, indeed, in private, 
that " from the Alps to the Adriatic " was only to be 
postponed, and he made his promise good seven years 
after, but the disappointment in 1859 was so great that 
Italians have never forgiven him, and have been, I think, 
ungenerously and ungraciously ungrateful to his memory. 

" Povera Italia!" exclaimed the King, when his remon- 
strances proved of no use ; and then he added : " Whatever 
may be your Majesty's decision, I shall always feel grateful 
for what you have done for Italian independence, and you 
may count on me as your friend." 

But Cavour, though no longer in office, could not restrain 
his feelings. "Your Emperor has dishonored me," he said, 
in Kossuth's presence, to M. Pietri, Napoleon's Chief of 
Police. "Yes sir, he has dishonored me!" And after 
painting the situation with all the irony and scorn of which 
he was master, he added : " If need be I will become a 
conspirator, a revolutionist ; but the treaty proposed by 
your master, the creation of an Italian Confederation, shall 
never be executed, — a thousand times No — never ! " 

The preliminaries of the treaty of peace between Austria 
and France, had opened with the words, " The Emperor of 
Austria and the Emperor of the French will favor the crea- 
tion of an Italian Confederation under the honorary presi- 
dency of the Holy Father." Further, it was provided that 
the rulers of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena should return to 
their duchies. It was stipulated that they were not to pun- 
ish their subjects, and the Pope was to be persuaded to 
make some reforms as a temporal ruler. 

But, although the treaty of Villafranca was to restore the 
Grand Duke Leopold to Tuscany, the Romagna to the Pope, 
and the Dukes of Parma and Modena to their dominions, 
it made no provision for putting them back in spite of their 
subjects' will, and their people utterly refused to receive 
them. As Prince Albert wrote : " What statesman could 
adopt measures to force Austrian rule again upon delighted 
free Italy?" 



214 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The inhabitants of these States of Central Italy had 
already elected Victor Emmanuel as their King, and had 
prayed him to accept them as his subjects. This, for 
diplomatic reasons, he had considered premature, but he 
sent them each a "Commissioner," and favored their form- 
ing provisional governments, which kept good order, — 
though they protested against the disposition made of 
them by diplomacy. During the interregnum, the only 
violence that occurred to mar the behavior of the people 
was the murder at Modena of a particularly obnoxious 
minister of the departed Duke. 

Victor Emmanuel, though he did not accept the proffered 
crowns, sent a general and certain high officers to the 
provinces ; and permitted Garibaldi to take his volunteers 
into Tuscany. That general by no means agreed with La 
Marmora and Fanti, generals bred in schools of discipline 
and regular warfare. He wanted to invade the States of 
the Church, and it seemed impossible to restrain him. 
But Cavour had by this time returned to his old post ; he 
had been recalled by the King quite unexpectedly. Their 
bitter quarrel had never been healed ; they had never met 
since that stormy interview in which words had been spoken 
hard to forget, even between equals. But Cavour knew 
himself to be essential to the cause of Italy. He did not 
suffer wounded pride to stand in the way when he might 
do her service. He obeyed the summons. Both King and 
minister acknowledged the intemperance of their speech in 
the late quarrel, and regretted their estrangement. At 
once Cavour found himself restored frankly to the old 
confidential footing with his sovereign. He advised the 
King to send for Garibaldi to Turin ; where by his personal 
influence he might induce the fiery leader to forget the 
affronts offered him by other generals, and to refrain from 
his design of invading the Papal States, by pointing out to 
him why any invasion of the Pope's frontier would complicate 
Italian affairs, in the eyes of Europe, and render Italian 
independence more difficult to attain. Garibaldi gave up 
his scheme, but resigned the command of his volunteers, 






THE ALLIANCE WITH TRANCE. 2 I 5 

and retired for a time to his island of Caprera. Before 
quitting the shores of the Adriatic he made a pious pilgrim- 
age to the chapel in the pine forest near Rimini, to which 
the remains of his wife Anita had been removed. He had 
taken another wife a few months before, during his cam- 
paign with his Alpine hunters. A young woman, daughter 
of the Marquis Raymondi, in a man's dress, brought him 
important information, and insisted on being rewarded by 
his hand in marriage. In vain Garibaldi protested that he 
wished for no wife, that his heart was with the dead mother 
of his children ; the woman carried her point. At the very 
door of the church, after the ceremony, Garibaldi discovered 
that he had been entrapped, that she and her friends had 
trusted to his kind-heartedness to conceal the consequences 
of a shameful intrigue carried on with her by one of his 
officers. Garibaldi quitted her at once, and was subse- 
quently divorced from her. He was, however, with diffi- 
culty dissuaded from adopting her child. 

In August, 1859, Victor Emmanuel went privately into 
Lombardy. The Treaty of Peace being not yet signed at 
Zurich he could not enter it as its sovereign. While in 
Milan he wished to visit the good and great Manzoni, author 
of that most beautiful of Christian and historical novels, " I 
Promessi Sposi " (" The Betrothed ") . Here is what Man- 
zoni said of their interview : — 

" I see in the King's character the hand of Providence. He 
is exactly the sovereign needed to accomplish the resurrection 
of Italy. He has rectitude, courage, incorruptible honesty, 
and disinterestedness. He seeks not glory or fortune for him- 
self, but for his country. He is so simple, — never caring to 
appear great, — that he does not meet the admiration of those 
who seek to find in princes theatrical actions and grandiloquent 
words. He is natural because he is true ; and this makes his 
enemies say he is wanting in royal majesty. To found Italian 
unity he has risked his throne and his life." 

But Victor Emmanuel's troubles were far from being 
over. There remained the affairs of Central Italy to be 
settled, involving the keen displeasure of the Pope. 



2l6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

For some years there had been a great and happy change 
in some of the governments of Italy. Leopold of Tuscany 
had been a mild ruler ; the Duchess of Parma, who gov- 
erned as regent for her son, had been considerate of the 
welfare of her subjects ; while in Lombardy and Venetia, 
on the retirement of Marshal Radetzky, in 1857, in his 
ninety-third year, the Archduke Maximilian had been ap- 
pointed viceroy. I have told the unhappy story of this 
prince elsewhere. 1 Countess Cesaresco says of him : — 

"A more naturally amiable and cultivated prince never had the 
evil fate forced upon him of attempting impossible tasks. Just 
married to the lovely Princess Charlotte of Belgium, he came to 
Italy radiant with happiness, and wishing to make every one as 
happy as he was himself. Not even the chilling welcome which 
he received damped his enthusiasm, for he thought the aversion 
of the population depended on undoubted wrongs, which it was 
his full intention to redress. He was to learn two things : — 
firstly, that the day for reconciliation was past, — there were too 
many ghosts between the Lombards and Venetians, and the 
house of Hapsburg; secondly, that an unseen hand beyond the 
Brenner would diligently thwart each one of his benevolent de- 
signs. The system was, and was to remain, unchanged. It 
was not carried out quite as it was in the first years after 1849. 
The exiles were allowed to return, and the sequestrations were 
revoked. It should be said, because it shows the one white 
spot in Austrian despotism, — its civic administration, — that 
on resuming their rights of ownership the proprietors found that 
their estates had not been badly managed. But the depressing 
and deadening influence of an anti-national rule, continued un- 
abated. Lombardy and Venetia were governed, not from 
Milan, but from Vienna. Very small were the crumbs which 
the Viceroy obtained when he went on a journey to Austria, 
expressly to plead for concessions. It is sad to think what an 
enlightened heir to the great Austrian Empire was lost when 
Napoleon III. and his own family sent Maximilian of Haps- 
burg to his death at Queretaro." 

But while ameliorations were taking place in the adminis- 
tration of Lombardy, Tuscany, and Parma, the rule of the 
Duke of Modena had been as bad as ever. So was the 

1 France in the Nineteenth Century. 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 217 

Pope's temporal government in Romagna ; and, as to 
Naples, all Europe was ringing with the words of Mr. 
Gladstone to Lord Aberdeen. 

It is difficult to follow the geography of the States of the 
Church, called, after their annexation to Piedmont, together 
with the smaller duchies, Emilia. Romagna was the most 
northerly, with its five cities, Ravenna, Forli, Imola, Faenza, 
and Rimini. Then there were the Marches, of which the 
chief towns were Ancona and Perugia; and south of the 
Marches lay what was called the Patrimony of St. Peter. 

The temporal power of the popes had been of gradual 
growth, having no connection with their spiritual power, 
whether we consider them as bishops of Rome, or heads of 
the Roman branch of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

The city of Rome, until the middle of the fourteenth 
century, belonged to the Empire, and was only the resi- 
dence of the popes. The first actual territorial possession 
of the pontiffs was the exarchate of Ravenna, presented to 
Pope Stephen III. by King Pepin, who had won it from 
the Lombards. The gift was confirmed by Charlemagne, 
who added to it two provinces, Perugia and Spoleto. The 
popes, having thus become temporal Italian princes, were 
desirous of increasing their dominions. Henry III. of Ger- 
many added another duchy to their provinces, and, a. d. i i 15, 
Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, made them that gift since 
called St. Peter's Patrimony, so lamented by Dante. Still, 
Rome was theirs only by sufferance ; their episcopal resi- 
dence not their rightful possession till the middle of the 
fourteenth century, when it changed masters, being torn 
from the Emperor by a revolution. In 1532, Clement VII. 
gained the Marches of Ancona, and in 1626 the duchy of 
Urbino, which had belonged to the family of Pope Julius II., 
was annexed to the Holy See. The last additions to the 
Papal States were made about 1680. Pope Paul III. had 
owned two provinces, which he gave to the Duke of Parma ; 
but one of the Duke's descendants pawned them, and, be- 
ing unable to redeem his pledge, Pope Innocent XL took 
possession of them in the name of the Holy See. It will 



218 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

thus be seen that the temporal power of the Church had no 
spiritual origin. At first its possessions were divided into 
thirteen provinces, and subsequently into what were called 
thirteen delegations. 

The Treaty of Villafranca, which confirmed the armistice 
of the 8th of July, was to be submitted to a conference at 
Zurich. The Villafranca treaty was between the French 
Emperor and his ally, and Austria ; no mention had been 
made in it of the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, — 
indeed, Nice had not been named between Cavour and the 
Emperor at Plombieres. The first mention of it had been 
made in the last words spoken by Napoleon to Victor Em- 
manuel before he left Turin. " We shall think no more of 
Savoy and Nice" His promise had been only half kept. 
He could not demand full payment for work left undone. 
But Louis Napoleon had at heart the formation of an 
Austro-Italian Confederation, of which the Pope should be 
the honorary temporal head, while he, whose soldiers alone 
maintained the Pope's authority in Rome as an Italian 
prince, would naturally exercise a predominating influence 
in the Confederacy. 

A congress was projected to settle the affairs of Central 
Italy, but it met with powerful objections from three quar- 
ters, — first, from all the people of these states, who with 
one voice had elected as their king Victor Emmanuel ; sec- 
ondly, from the Pope, who refused to give up any portion 
of the papal territory, and declined to have anything to do 
with the congress ; and, thirdly, from England, Lord John 
Russell, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, saying : " We are 
asked to propose a plan for parcelling out the peoples of 
Italy, as if we had any right to dispose of them ; " while, 
fourthly, Victor Emmanuel wrote to the Emperor a power- 
ful protest against the congress, saying : "lam bound on 
my side by honor in the face of Europe, by right and duty, 
by the interests of my house, of my people, and of Italy. 
My fate is joined to that of the Italian people. We may 
succumb, but we will never betray. . . . The apostasies of 
princes are always irreparable. I am moved to the bottom 



THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 219 

of my soul by the faith and love which this noble and unfor- 
tunate people has reposed in me, and rather than be unwor- 
thy of it I will break my sword, and, like my august father, 
throw my crown away. Personal interest does not guide 
me in defending the annexations. The sword and the 
progress of events have borne my house from the summit of 
the Alps to the banks of the Mincio, and those two guardian 
angels of the Savoy race will bear it further still, — if it 
please God." 

Alas ! the price exacted for the realization of these 
hopes, was the renunciation of the cradle of his race, and 
of Nice, which, as some one has said of it, " lets France 
within Italy's front door." 

The Pope, who, as Mr. Godkin says, " refuted — if ever 
monarch did — Macaulay's saying that 'no one can be a 
good man, and a bad king,' " held long correspondence 
with Victor Emmanuel on the subject of what adherents to 
the Pope's claim to temporal power called his " robberies " 
in the legations. He ended by excommunicating the 
King, his officers, and any of his subjects who had con- 
curred in the scheme of annexing to Piedmont any portion 
of the Papal States. 

In this there is no question that Pio Nono was acting 
according to his conscience, and his language was dignified 
and temperate. All his letters, even after his bull of excom- 
munication, ended with promises to pray for his erring son, 
which, no doubt, he faithfully did. But his consecration 
oath bound him, as he believed, to transmit intact the 
Papal States to his successor. 

Nothing, however, could repress the course of events, 
and Victor Emmanuel became King of Northern Italy, 
including Piedmont, Tuscany, the duchies, and the lega- 
tions, — Naples remaining under its new sovereign, Francis 
II., son of the lately deceased King Bomba, while the Pope, 
under the protection of the French, retained Rome, and a 
small portion of his territory. 

Then caoae the bitter moment for Victor Emmanuel 
when he had to give up Savoy and Nice to France. Savoy 



220 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

was French in language, and had always looked to Paris 
rather than Turin as its metropolitan city, but Nice was 
Italian to the backbone. The King made the renunciation 
of Savoy with earnest exhortations to his dear ancestral 
people to be good subjects to their new ruler, but the pang 
was great. 

When, for the first time, Victor Emmanuel spoke to the 
representatives of the new portions of his widened realm, 
it was the day after he had received news of his excommu- 
nication. He said to them : — 

" True to the creed of my fathers, and, like them, constant in 
my homage to the Supreme Head of the Church, whenever it 
happens that the ecclesiastical authority employs spiritual arms 
in support of temporal interests, I shall find in my steadfast 
conscience and in the very traditions of my ancestors the power 
to maintain civil liberty in its integrity and my own authority ; 
for which I hold myself accountable to God alone, and to my 
people. . . . Our country becomes henceforth the Italy of the 
Italians." 

In April, i860, Victor Emmanuel and Cavour set out on 
a journey through the King's new dominions. Such joy as 
was everywhere displayed was unprecedented. " What are 
you clapping so frantically for?" asked a foreigner of a 
young lad in Florence, who seemed out of his senses at the 
sight of the King. "We are eleven millions of Italians ! " 
was the answer. All the men of letters in Italy contributed 
to Victor Emmanuel's triumph, — " and yet I am nothing 
but a soldier," he repeatedly said. 




GIUSE PPE GA RIB A ID I. 



CHAPTER XL 



GARIBALDI. 



r ~P0 effect the union of eleven millions of Italians into one 
Kingdom of Northern Italy had cost terrible sacri- 
fices. The Emperor Napoleon, who had begun his schemes 
for interference in the affairs of Italy with a project for 
establishing French influence in the peninsula, in place of 
that of Austria, had at first planned to place a Murat on the 
throne of the two Sicilies, and Prince Jerome Napoleon on 
that of Tuscany (the Napoleonic kingdom of Etruria), 
while he himself maintained an army of occupation in 
Rome. Events had not moved exactly as he wished, and 
he perceived that if he hoped to establish French influence 
in Southern Italy he would have to give up the duchies 
(Tuscany, Parma, Lucca, and Modena) and the northern 
legations. It would, he found, be impossible to stem the 
current of popular feeling in these provinces, which had 
been wisely governed ad interim by friends or agents of 
Victor Emmanuel. These States had all sent deputations to 
the King of Piedmont, imploring annexation to his king- 
dom. He had not granted their request, but had advised 
the formation of temporary provisional governments, while 
he sent agents or commissioners into each of these States. 
The Emperor Napoleon had seen one of these deputations, 
and had dismissed it with assurances of his support ; but 
after the Peace of Villafranca, which provided that these 
duchies and legations should return to their former rulers, 
but made no provision for placing them there, the Em- 
peror changed his attitude to Victor Emmanuel. He con- 
sented not to oppose the will of the people, which he could 



222 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

only have done by pouring French troops into the Roman 
States ; but he demanded, as the price of acquiescence in 
the popular will, a renewal of the agreement that the King 
of Northern Italy would cede to France, Nice and Savoy. 
At Plombieres Cavour had agreed to give up Savoy. He 
had not stipulated to surrender Nice ; and when Louis 
Napoleon had to stop short in what seemed a career of 
victory after Solferino, he had said at parting, " We will talk 
no more of Savoy and Nice." But early in i860 he pro- 
posed to make a new bargain. If he allowed Victor 
Emmanuel to add six splendid provinces to his kingdom on 
the south, he must have in exchange the rocks of Savoy and 
the harbor of Nice. 

Words cannot express the indignation of Garibaldi when 
this arrangement was made known to him. He was born 
at Nice, though his boyhood was spent in Genoa. Never 
would he forgive those who by the cession of his birthplace 
" made him a foreigner ! " He hurried to Turin, and had 
an interview with the King, who said to him sadly that his 
own sacrifice of Savoy, the cradle of his race, was greater 
than his sacrifice of his birthplace, — that they must both 
be willing to give up what was dear to them for the sake of 
Italy. 

But Garibaldi was not to be restrained. He believed 
himself to be animated by righteous wrath, and to the day 
of his death exhausted his vocabulary of vituperation on 
what he called " the low intrigues of Cavour," and of " his 
cowardly tail," who had sold themselves into the hands of 
" that vulpine knave," Napoleon. 

It had been stipulated that according to the Napoleonic 
policy, a plebiscite should be heki in Savoy and Nice to 
certify the willingness of the population of those countries 
to be united to France. We know well enough now the 
hollow sham of a plebiscite as conducted under a French 
administration. Before, however, the plebiscite in Nice 
could be taken, Garibaldi was elected deputy from Nice to 
the Parliament at Turin, the first held in Victor Emmanuel's 
enlarged dominions. 



GARIBALDI. 223 

In that Chamber, soon after its opening, April 6, i860, 
Garibaldi rose to do battle for his birthplace. He had no 
knowledge of parliamentary rules, and was little of an ora- 
tor, but he denounced the Treaty which ceded Savoy and 
Nice to France, as a violation of the Constitution, — at least 
that was what he intended to say, it was the strong point in 
his case, but he soon wandered from it into invective and 
abuse of diplomacy. 

Cavour replied that the true ground for the treaty was 
that its provisions formed a portion of the integral policy of 
the government. It was the logical and inevitable conse- 
quence of a past policy, and an absolute necessity for the 
carrying out of this policy in the future. 

When a vote was taken, Cavour had a majority of one 
hundred and ninety-six, and Garibaldi at once proceeded to 
act upon a plan which in Nice at least should prevent any 
count of a plebiscite from being taken, till he had sent 
political missionaries and agents all through the little State 
to stir up hostility to annexation. 

There are few more charming books of stirring experi- 
ences by flood and field than Lawrence Oliphant's " Scenes 
in a Life of Adventure," first published in Blackwood's 
Magazine as " Moss from a Rolling Stone," and one of its 
chapters relates how he was in Turin in April, i860, — how 
he was introduced to Garibaldi and a number of other 
Nizzards (*. e., men of Nice), and how, with his love of 
adventure, he was more than ready to take a hand in the 
game. When Garibaldi's motion in the Parliament had 
failed, it occurred to him that if he and a party of his 
friends could seize and destroy the ballot-boxes before the 
count, another plebiscite would have to be held, thus gaining 
time to work upon the peasantry. So, with Oliphant for 
company, he went from Turin to Genoa. All the way he 
was very silent, reading and destroying an immense quan- 
tity of letters. At Genoa they were to be met by about 
two hundred men, old members of the Legion told off to 
take part in the plan. The first thing to be done was that 
Oliphant (while Garibaldi met his followers) should go to 



224 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the diligence office, and secure a whole diligence for Nice. 
His account is very amusing, of how he failed to persuade 
the office clerk that he and his friend, a rich Englishman, 
travelling with no luggage but a portmanteau apiece, wanted 
to pay for sixteen places for the satisfaction of being able to 
change from one seat to another. However, failure to 
secure a whole diligence proved not of any consequence, 
for, on joining Garibaldi, he found all his plans had been 
changed. Nice was given up. The two hundred gentle- 
men assembled at Genoa were all from Sicily. " I find," 
said Garibaldi, " that if we are to relieve their country from 
the oppression of Bomba, we must go at once. I had hoped 
to be able to carry out this little Nice affair first, for it is 
only a matter of a few days ; but, much as I regret it, the 
general opinion is that we shall lose all if we try for too 
much, and, fond as I am of my native province, I cannot 
sacrifice the greater hopes of Italy to it." 

It probably did not strike the General that the words I 
have put in italics would have come equally well from the 
lips of Victor Emmanuel or Cavour. 

So Nice and its plebiscite were left to their fate, and thus 
was begun the first act of the Sicilian campaign. 

Lawrence Oliphant, to the end of his life, regretted that 
he did not accept Garibaldi's invitation to take part in the 
affray. As it was, the eight hundred who embarked for 
Sicily were all Italians, though they w r ere joined afterwards 
by volunteers from many nations. 

The expedition to Sicily had, indeed, been planned during 
the summer of 1859, as early as the days of Villafranca. 
The most active and trusted agent of Mazzini in the island 
was Francesco Crispi, well known to all of us in 1896 as 
Italy's long distinguished Prime Minister. He travelled in 
all parts of Sicily, and sent in reports to Mazzini that the 
island was prepared to welcome a republic. But Mazzini 
curbed his zeal, and told him only to aim at Italian unity. 

Meantime Rosalino Pilo, a Sicilian of a noble house, and 
on his mother's side descended from the royal house of 
Anjou, had organized the first steps toward revolution. 



GARIBALDI. 225 

He and Mazzini had held communication with the angry 
lion at Caprera. They had stored arms in the convent of 
La Gancia, near Palermo ; the conspiracy was discovered, 
the convent attacked, and all the monks would have been 
slaughtered had not one of them pointed out to his com- 
rades a secret issue from the chapel. 

Rosalino Pilo, arriving in Sicily just after this event, found 
only a few armed bands of conspirators roving in the moun- 
tains. These he concentrated, and he sent back letters to 
Garibaldi which convinced him that the right time had 
come for the enterprise which had been already prepared 
for. We have seen how embarkation was undertaken, on 
the spur of the moment, by the General, who found things 
in readiness when he arrived at Genoa. 

An officer of the Red Shirts, high in the confidence of 
Garibaldi, and employed by him when any enterprise 
demanded especial daring, — and, it might be added, excep- 
tional severity, — was Nino Bixio. He, like Garibaldi, had 
been a sailor, — indeed he had served as a seaman in the 
Sardinian navy, which he had been forced to enter by his 
family, who professed themselves unable to control him. 
When, in 1847, Charles Albert, on the eve of his declaration 
of war, was entering Genoa, it was Bixio who stopped the 
royal carriage, and thundered out : " Sire, cross the Ticino, 
and we will all be with you ! " A year earlier, when desert- 
ing with three others from an American merchant ship on 
the coast of Sumatra, he fell into the hands of the savages 
of the island, and, but for the humanity of the Quaker cap- 
tain, who reclaimed his runaways with risk to himself and 
his ship, it might have gone hard with the young rascals. 

When Bixio, in March 1848, heard of the rising at Milan, 
he started to play a part in it. There the young poet 
Goffredo Mameli took him in hand, and he joined the vol- 
unteers, but when the war came to a close he refused to be 
disbanded. It was then that he was first brought into close 
personal relations with Garibaldi. He served with distinc- 
tion against the French at Rome, where he was badly 
wounded and his poet friend was killed. Next we find 

15 



226 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

him in command of a fine clipper, which he named the Gof- 
fredo Mameli, starting from Genoa on a voyage to Australia. 

He served in the war of 1859, contemptuously approving 
the French alliance, and quoting Dante's saying : " We 
must create Italy, — even were it by help of the devil!" 
(Facciam r Italia, anche col diavolo /) 

When Garibaldi had resolved to start on his Sicilian 
expedition it was to Bixio that he intrusted the task of 
embarking his volunteers, the celebrated Thousand, who 
were waiting in small parties all along the coast, though the 
chief part had assembled at Genoa. The arms and ammu- 
nition for the enterprise had been got on board an old hulk 
which was lying in the harbor between two passenger- 
steamers. By the tacit consent of their owner, these 
steamers (subsequently paid for) were selected to transport 
the filibusters. At dusk on May 4, i860, forty men, the 
flower of the Garibaldian expedition, stepped on board the 
hulk, where Bixio assumed command as naval captain and 
lieutenant-colonel. The arms and ammunition were trans- 
ferred to the steamers, and by early dawn they were under 
way for a small port where Garibaldi was waiting for them 
with a large party of his Thousand. 

After some hours of anxious suspense, which Garibaldi in 
his book, " I Mille," has graphically described, the " Pied- 
mont " and the " Lombard " hove in sight, and the embarka- 
tion was accomplished in two hours. Bixio commanded the 
" Piedmont," Garibaldi the " Lombard." The latter was 
the faster sailer, and soon in the darkness the " Piedmont " 
lost sight of her. Suddenly through the gloom a black 
mass was seen right in her course. Bixio at once resolved 
to run down the strange vessel. His volunteers seized their 
arms with cries of "Board her! Board her!" The ships 
were on the point of a collision, when a voice hailed from 
the steamer which was lying to. " Captain Bixio ! " It was 
the voice of Garibaldi. " What are you about there ? Do 
you want to send us to the bottom?" " General, I saw no 
signals." " Eh ! Signals? don't you see we are within the 
enemy's lines? Make for Marsala." 



GARIBALDI. 227 

It is marvellous that they were not discovered by the 
Neapolitan fleet, but the proximity of an English squadron 
is thought to have paralyzed the Neapolitan commander. 
The ships reached Marsala, a small port on the west coast 
of Sicily, and landed their thousand Red Shirts in safety. 

At once Garibaldi marched his men to Calatafimi, where 
the Neapolitan army was intrenched in a very strong posi- 
tion. The " Thousand " was really eight hundred, together 
with a few bands (squadri) of Sicilian insurgents, called 
picciotti, who had joined him. These men proved fierce 
fighters, but they were also fierce with all the cruelty of 
savages. The fighting at Calatafimi was desperate. Gari- 
baldi's men carried position after position with the bayonet. 
But at last even Bixio despaired, and whispered to his 
chief: " I fear we must retreat." " Never say that, Bixio," 
was the answer, " Here we die." With this he cried to his 
men : 

" Five minutes' rest ! Five minutes' rest ! — and then we 
charge ! " With loud cries they dashed up the mountain, 
and in a quarter of an hour Calatafimi, Garibaldi's most 
important battle, was won. 

It was a great assistance to Garibaldi that the Sicilian 
priests were nearly all upon his side. His own chaplain, 
Father Pantaleone, by what Mr. Bent calls a " spiritual coup 
de main" professed to relieve his general from the ill effects 
of the Pope's bull of excommunication. This had a most 
happy effect on the minds of the Sicilians. 

Garibaldi's next move was to take Palermo. He got into 
the town without a battle by a piece of masterly generalship, 
but once there he found hard street-fighting, ending how- 
ever by the Neapolitan garrison retreating to the palace and 
the citadel. 

Palermo went mad with gaiety ; every scrap of a red 
fabric, whatever its material, was brought forth on the occa- 
sion. But rejoicing was soon turned into terror. The 
Neapolitan ships and the soldiers in the citadel bombarded 
the town. The English admiral, who with his squadron 
was in the harbor, wrote to his government : — 



228 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

"A whole district, one thousand English yards in length, by 
one hundred wide, is in ashes. Families have been burned 
alive, with the buildings, while the atrocities of the royal troops 
have been frightful. In other parts, churches, convents, and 
isolated buildings have been crushed by the shells, eleven 
hundred of which were thrown into the city from the citadel. 
. . . The conduct of General Garibaldi, both during the 
hostilities and since their suspension, has been noble and 
generous." 

Ten days later, the Neapolitan soldiers, who had surren- 
dered, embarked on transports for the mainland, apparently 
in high spirits, notwithstanding their defeat, for the greater 
part were foreign mercenaries, and they carried with them 
considerable booty. 

Every inhabitant of Palermo that same day set to work 
with spade and pickaxe to destroy the citadel. In such a 
population liberty meant license, and Garibaldi and Bixio 
had to make sundry severe examples before they could 
establish any authority. 

Just then arrived an agent of Cavour from Piedmont. 
He came to take measures for promoting the immediate 
annexation of Sicily to the kingdom of Sardinia. This, too, 
was urged by Admiral Persano. But on this point Cavour 
and Garibaldi disagreed. The general had set his heart on 
presenting his conquests to his King, Victor Emmanuel, 
when Italy should be complete. There remained Naples, 
Venetia, and, above all, Rome to make it so. He did not 
wish to offer his great gift piecemeal. He therefore got 
rid of Cavour's agent, and proceeded to carry out his own 
plans. Meantime money and recruits reached him at 
Palermo. He won the hearts of the inhabitants. Even his 
piety increased his popularity, as he knelt among the crowd 
on the bare pavement of the cathedral, when thanks in a 
solemn mass were returned to God for his success. The 
desire of the better class of inhabitants of Palermo was for 
speedy annexation to Piedmont, that law and order might 
be restored and commerce and prosperity be re-established. 
Garibaldi had to explain to them that " he had come to 



GARIBALDI. 229 

fight for Italy — not alone for Sicily, and that until Italy 
should be entirely united and free, nothing could be done 
for individual parts of it." 

The moneyed classes, however, in Sicily are said to have 
been for the most part apathetic in this struggle. Mobs in 
the cities cheered themselves hoarse on every occasion ; 
the peasantry, already semi-brigands, joined the picciotti ,- 
and the clergy, curiously enough, did all they could to 
assist the insurrection. 

By June, i860, Garibaldi reigned as Dictator over all 
Sicily, except the citadel of Messina. He appointed a min- 
istry, at the head of which was Signor Crispi ; he also ap- 
pointed as his substitute, or pro-Dictator, Signor Dupretis ; 
but after the departure of the Red Shirts for the mainland, 
the task of bringing order out of anarchy in Sicily proved 
too hard for these subordinates. 

Garibaldi fought another important battle at Milazzo be- 
fore obtaining possession of the city of Messina. Early in 
July, when at the height of his fame and prestige, he suddenly 
disappeared for two weeks, he had gone no one knew 
whither. It was, however, to Sardinia, where a large force 
had been assembled under directions from Mazzini, ready 
to co-operate with the Red Shirts in an attack on Rome. 
Garibaldi, however, succeeded in persuading these men to 
join his own forces in Sicily. He had received intelligence 
from Cavour that if any invasion of the Pontifical States 
was made by this body of soldiers, they would have to 
fight not only the Pope's army, now under command of the 
French general Lamoriciere, but the French army of occu- 
pation and the Piedmontese. 

Garibaldi returned with these recruits to Messina, and at 
once organized his forces for an invasion of the Neapolitan 
kingdom. He took with him about four thousand men. 
Three thousand were his own Red Shirts, while Bixio's 
brigade consisted of one thousand volunteers brought 
from Sardinia, and seven hundred others. One of Gari- 
baldi's chief officers was General Cosenz, whom we have 
before heard of in the siege of Venice. He was a Sicilian. 



230 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The aspiration of Sicily was, not for Italian unity, 
but for autonomy and separation from the kingdom of 
Naples. For centuries there had been bitter hatred be- 
tween Sicilians and Neapolitans ; and the feeling even now, 
at the close of the century, has not died away. 

Garibaldi had by this time purchased a little fleet ; two of 
his steamers, the " Franklin " and the "Torino " were an- 
chored off Taormina, and there he and his men embarked, — 
four thousand volunteers, to encounter eighty thousand dis- 
ciplined troops, that being the estimated strength of the 
King of Naples's army. " But," says Mr. Bent, " the soldiers 
were desperately afraid of Garibaldi's guerilla style of war- 
fare, so new to them, and a sort of mysterious horror per- 
vaded those who were not over-enthusiastic for the cause in 
which they were to fight." 

Garibaldi's troops, — no longer called the Thousand, but 
the Army of the South, were landed at Melito, almost the 
extreme southwest point of the Italian peninsula. Leaving 
them upon the mainland, we will pause to say a few words 
concerning the situation from Cavour's point of view, of 
policy and diplomacy. 

The great statesman's design was to be successful. He 
secured Italian unity. He baffled all those who would have 
defeated his plans, but the story of his triumph is not a 
pleasant chapter in Italian history. Our judgment goes 
with Cavour, our sympathies with the men against whom he 
intrigued ; and while we cannot approve of them, we feel 
that the very policy of Cavour owes to them success and 
gratitude. As the Countess Cesaresco has said truly, " the 
Italian kingdom is the fruit of the alliance between the 
strong monarchical principles of Piedmont, and the dissolv- 
ent forces of the revolution." 

Cavour had just succeeded in establishing his sovereign 
as King of Northern Italy, and in having him acknowledged 
such by the Great Powers. He had frustrated the French 
Emperor's scheme for establishing a kingdom of Etruria, at 
the cost of two provinces dear to the hearts of himself and 
his sovereign, and when the prospect opened before him 



GARIBALDI. 23 I 

of a war on the southern frontier of the new kingdom, war 
between Giuseppe Garibaldi, Francis II. of Naples, the 
French, and the newly raised army of the Pope, composed 
chiefly of Irishmen and Austrians, how should he act? Un- 
directed by himself, such a struggle would throw Italy into 
anarchy and confusion, and if he and his sovereign assumed 
its direction, every court in Europe which had just entered 
into friendly relations with Victor Emmanuel would unite 
against him. The enterprise of Garibaldi in Sicily and his 
designs on the Pontifical States and on the Roman capital 
were believed in all the courts of Europe to be connected 
with the spread of the ideas of Mazzini. " In short, Victor 
Emmanuel and his government were pledged to the na- 
tional cause, and they did not mean to stultify themselves by 
taking part with the enemies of that cause, even if they were 
Red Shirts and Garibaldians." 

It was true that Garibaldi's war-cry was " LTtalia e 
Vittorio Emmanuele," but Garibaldi was a man easily in- 
fluenced and persuaded. His programme was to con- 
quer Sicily ; then Naples ; and then to march on Rome. 
This would upset all Cavour's carefully laid schemes of 
diplomacy. 

He dared not oppose Garibaldi, a subject who, in popular 
estimation, was a man even greater than his sovereign, — 
he dared not openly countenance him. Yet the cause for 
which Garibaldi was to risk his fame and life was the cause 
for which he was quite as willing to imperil his own. But, as 
his King had said, " a man may risk his own life, but not the 
cause of Italy." Cavour, therefore, adopted an underhand 
policy. He would not oppose Garibaldi's expedition, he 
would even covertly assist it, — as he did by his orders to 
Admiral Persano ; he would suffer him to conquer Sicily, 
and to land upon the shores of Calabria ; there he trusted 
he might fall into a trap and his revolutionary rising be 
defeated. His King should then take possession of Sicily, 
and gain Naples, Rome, and Venetia at some future time, 
probably through diplomacy. 

This offers the only comprehensible explanation of the 



232 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

position of Cavour. He certainly encouraged Garibaldi's 
expedition into Sicily. He certainly never intended that 
his invasion of Naples should succeed \ nor that he should 
draw down on the newly made kingdom of Northern Italy 
the wrath of all Catholic Europe by revolutionizing Rome. 

Cavour said openly in Parliament that the kingdom of 
Italy would never be complete until its capital was the 
Eternal City ; but the question involved so much delicate 
European diplomacy, complicated as it was by the French 
occupation of Rome, that Cavour and Victor Emmanuel 
were anxious to postpone the Roman question till Italy 
could recover Venetia. But Garibaldi was impatient of 
diplomacy, and the Roman people (especially those in the 
papal provinces since Piedmont had annexed Romagna) 
were impatient of the yoke. The whole scheme of United 
Italy might be put, by Garibaldi's expedition, into peril. 
In vain Victor Emmanuel issued proclamations against Gari- 
baldi, and wrote him private letters, commanding him to 
stop. Garibaldi believed in the sword, and not in diplo- 
macy. Victor Emmanuel had only the choice left him of 
putting down Garibaldi by force of arms, or assuming the 
direction of affairs in Southern Italy. 

Garibaldi's campaign in the kingdom of Naples was a mere 
military promenade. Except at Reggio, he met with no re- 
sistance till his forces had made their way to the Volturno. 

Bodies of Neapolitan troops, composed of several thou- 
sand men, surrendered or dispersed at the first sight of the 
Garibaldians. On one occasion seven thousand infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery yielded on being summoned by one 
English officer, who told them that the Garibaldians were 
near at hand. 

There is an amusing anecdote told of Colonel Peard, a 
Cornish gentleman among the Red Shirts. Garibaldi had 
volunteers of all nations under him, — among them an 
English legion. His army had increased to about fifteen 
thousand men. The only point at which Garibaldi feared 
resistance was Salerno, where thirty thousand Neapolitans 
were massed around the town in positions of great strength. 



GARIBALDI. 233 

Before the advanced guard of Garibaldi's army approached 
Salerno, Colonel Peard, riding forward with a few followers, 
reached the town of Eboli. Peard's features were not like 
those of Garibaldi, nevertheless he was very often taken for 
him, and on this occasion the terrified townsfolk of Eboli 
believed that they beheld the " conquering hero." Peard 
readily assumed the part, and, with Commander Forbes as 
his aide-de-camp, accepted all kinds of honors. 

" Like wildfire spread the news. The whole population be- 
sieged the house of the Syndic, who had received the spurious 
general, brass bands sounded, Chinese lanterns were hung out ; 
the Church, led by the bishop, hurried to the spot ; the Law, 
with a judge at its head, closely followed ; while the wives of the 
officials, gaily dressed, craved audience. . . . But all were assured 
by Captain Forbes that General Garibaldi was much fatigued 
and fast asleep, — as in truth he was, ninety miles away, — but 
that he would receive them the next morning. Meantime, Peard 
was in an inner room, where he had sent for the telegraph 
operator, and was sending off messages to Naples. The chief 
of these was to General Ulloa, who had just been made the 
Minister of War of King Francis. It was signed as if it came 
from one of his known personal friends at Eboli, and ran thus : 
'Eboli, 11.30 p. m. Garibaldi has arrived with five thousand 
of his own men ; and five thousand Calabrese are momentarily 
expected. Disembarkations are expected in the Bay of Naples 
and the Gulf of Salerno to-night. I strongly advise your with- 
drawing the garrison from the latter place without delay, or they 
will be cut off.' The message was hardly sent, when a real 
despatch came from the War Minister, asking the telegraph 
clerk at Eboli if news had been received from a division of the 
King's army under Caldarelli ? To this Peard made answer 
that General Caldarelli and his division had gone over to Gari- 
baldi yesterday and now formed part of his army. Similar 
information was sent to General Scotti at Salerno. Finally the 
Syndic of Salerno was asked if he had seen anything of the 
Garibaldian expeditions by sea. 

" Satisfied with this work, Colonel Peard, who knew that there 
were Neapolitan troops within four miles of Eboli, and who did 
not think that things looked entirely reassuring, decided to beat 
a somewhat precipitate retreat. He told the Syndic of Eboli 
that he was going to reconnoitre in the direction of Salerno, and 
that his departure must be kept a dead secret, but as soon as 



234 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

he was out of town, he turned the horses' heads backward 
toward the Garibaldian lines. He was still accompanied by 
Captain Forbes, to whom, during their midnight ride, he related 
his performance on the telegraph wires. ' What on earth was 
the good of all that ? ' said Forbes. ' You don't imagine they 
will be fools enough to believe it ? ' ' You will see,' answered 
the Colonel. ' It will frighten them to death. And to-morrow 
they will evacuate Salerno.' And in fact at four o"clock in the 
morning the evacuation was begun, in obedience to telegraphic 
orders from Naples." 

Then the King, Queen, and the Austrian, Prussian, 
Bavarian, and Spanish ambassadors left Naples for the 
strong fortress of Gaeta, on board a Spanish man-of-war, 
the King leaving behind him a proclamation to his sub- 
jects which would have been touching from a sort of simple 
eloquence had it not been for the memories of a hundred 
and fifty years. It was not, however, written by himself, 
but by his prime minister, Liborio Romano, who had just 
sent a telegram to the supposed Garibaldi at Eboli, invok- 
ing in Naples "the most desired presence " of the Dictator. 
With this document in his hand, Peard met the General, 
who received him (having already got news of his exploit) 
with a cheer and Evviva Garibaldi ! 

The invading army had only to walk into Salerno, and 
next morning at half-past nine, Garibaldi, with thirteen offi- 
cers of his staff, took the regular morning train for Naples. 
It took them some hours to get„there, however, the crowds 
of enthusiastic peasantry were so great along the road. 

In Naples the population went mad with excitement, but 
cheers in Southern Europe seem to count for little. 

Meantime, in Turin great fears were entertained that the 
freeing of the Two Sicilies would drift into a republican 
movement. Garibaldi's Secretary of State was Dr. Ber- 
tani, a pronounced friend and agent of Mazzini. Garibaldi 
had refused to give up Sicily to the King's government, as 
he now refused to give up Naples ; and he declared without 
the least concealment that he intended to proclaim Victor 
Emmanuel King of Italy in Rome itself. 

When affairs had reached this stage, Cavour decided that 



GARIBALDI. 235 

it would be best for Victor Emmanuel to carry his army 
across his own frontier into Umbria and the Marches of 
Ancona, which still belonged to the Pope. The Pope had 
a little army of his own — five thousand men — drawn 
from France, Ireland, and Belgium. Their commander, 
General Lamoriciere, had been one of the African generals, 
arrested by de Morny during Louis Napoleon's coup (FEtat, 
and imprisoned at Ham, where he contracted rheumatism 
which lasted him his life. 

Before commencing hostilities, Victor Emmanuel proposed 
to Pio Nono that he should assume the administration of 
the papal provinces, leaving to the Pope their nominal 
sovereignty, and the control of Rome. This proposition 
was received with scorn ; then thirty-five thousand men, 
under General Fanti (a soldier of the old school, particu- 
larly disliked by Garibaldi) crossed over the frontier, as was 
said, to re-establish order. The present Pope, Leo XIII., 
then Bishop of Perugia, did all he could to quell anarchy 
and prevent bloodshed. 

The Sardinians and the papal troops met at Castelfidardo. 
The latter sincerely believed that a miracle would be 
wrought to save what they held to be the cause of God and 
the Holy Father. " In the battle the French fought with 
the gallantry of the Vendeans, whose descendants for the 
most part they were, and the Irish behaved as Irishmen 
will always do under fire, but the Swiss and the Romans 
mostly fought ill, or not at all. . . . The former had for 
some years served the Pope, and the latter, being Italians, 
and above all being Romans, were not sustained by one 
scrap of the mystical enthusiasm that animated the men 
from Brittany." Many of the French officers were killed, 
and Lamoriciere lamented truly that much of the best blood 
of France had been spilled on that lost field. 

The campaign had lasted eighteen days. The Piedmon- 
tese fleet, under Admiral Persano, came round from Naples 
to Ancona, to co-operate with Victor Emmanuel's land forces, 
which, holding Umbria and the Marches, left the way open 
for a march on Naples. 



236 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Meantime, news reached the King that Mazzini was with 
Garibaldi, and it caused great uneasiness at Turin. Gari- 
baldi, indeed, though refusing to deny Mazzini permission 
to remain in Naples, had suffered him to be informed 
privately that it was his wish that he would go. " How 
could I have insisted on sending Mazzini into exile, when 
he had done so much for Italian unity?" he said afterwards 
to Victor Emmanuel. And the King owned that he was 
right. 

The English government at this time tried its influence 
with Garibaldi, through his friend Admiral Mundy, who 
commanded the British squadron off Naples. But Gari- 
baldi stood firm to his opinion that Rome was an Italian 
city, and that no emperor or any one else, had a right to 
keep him out of it. "He was," said Mundy, "not to be 
swayed by any dictates of prudence." 

Meantime, the troops of King Francis were drawn up on 
the right bank of the Volturno in a long line of many miles, 
and the soldiers of Garibaldi on the other bank were facing 
them. At first, victory seemed assured to the Neapolitans, 
but the Garibaldians fought splendidly, and at the end of 
ten hours their chief was able to telegraph to Naples, 
"Victory all along the line!" 

There then remained only the fortresses of Capua and 
Gaeta to be taken. All the rest of the kingdom of the Two 
Sicilies had submitted to the Dictator. But Garibaldi now 
knew that he must give up his favorite dream of proclaiming 
Victor Emmanuel King of Italy within the walls of Rome. 

In October, i860, Victor Emmanuel set out for Naples, 
through the newly won provinces that connected his northern 
kingdom with Southern Italy. He visited the sick in the 
hospitals, who had been wounded at Castelfidardo, and 
spoke words of kindness to his own soldiers, and to those 
who had fought them as enemies ; only one man refused 
him gratitude, a Belgian, who drew his coverings over his 
face, that he might not even see " the robber king." 

Victor Emmanuel also visited the Holy House of Loretto, 
which is near the battlefield ; and, like a pious Catholic, he 



GARIBALDI. 237 

there performed his devotions. He was determined on a 
plebiscite in his new provinces, saying to those around him, 
" Italy must be made by us, or it runs the risk of being un- 
made forever. Garibaldi is a hero, but he does not know 
how to combat the difficulties of the situation. We alone 
can meet them." 

He made the whole journey on horseback, starting at 
daybreak every morning after a cup of coffee and a roll, and 
riding on till evening, when he dined at some country 
house. 

"One bright morning, as he was starting on his day's march, 
he saw a body of horsemen drawing near. They proved to be 
the Red Shirts, with their leader in their midst, come to lay 
down his dictatorship at the feet of his constitutional sovereign. 
The two leaders rode rapidly forward, and when near enough to 
salute, Garibaldi reined up his horse, and in a voice of much 
emotion, said simply: 'King of Italy!' Victor Emmanuel 
answered as simply, ' Thank you,' and the two clasped hands. 
They remained silent a few moments, then the Sardinians and 
the Garibaldians rent the air with their cries, Viva Vittorio, 
Re d" 1 Italia! Viva Ga?'ibaldi 7 Viva V Italia ! " 

This was the proudest moment of Garibaldi's life. He 
had laid aside all feelings of personal ambition. He had 
given a kingdom to his sovereign, or rather to one who was 
no longer his sovereign, for was he not a native of Nice ? 
He had done his duty for love of Italy, — and " nothing for 
reward," and he asked for but one recompense, favor to be 
shown to his devoted followers, his Red Shirts and his 
Calabrese. This was denied him ; even in this first inter- 
view a cruel note was struck, when he asked that, in the 
impending battle on the river Garigliano, his volunteers 
might have the honor of fighting in the first line, — and the 
King answered, " Your troops are tired ; mine are fresh. 
It is my turn now." Garibaldi said sadly to an English 
friend that evening, " They have sent us to the rear." Did 
he remember what Mazzini had told him, — " If you are 
not on your way to Rome or Venice before three weeks are 
over, your initiative will be at an end " ? 



238 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Garibaldi's last act was to issue a proclamation to the 
citizens of Naples : — 

" Tomorrow Victor Emmanuel, the elect of the nation, will 
break down the frontier that has divided us for so many cen- 
turies from the rest of the country, and, listening to the unani- 
mous voice of this brave people, will appear among us. Let us 
worthily receive him who is sent by Providence, and scatter in 
his path, as the pledge of our redemption and our affection, the 
flowers of concord, — to him so grateful, to us so necessary. 
Let there be no more political colors, no more parties, no more 
discords. Italy one (as the metropolis has wisely declared she 
should be), under the King Galantuomo, who is the symbol of 
our regeneration and the prosperity of our country. 

" Garibaldi." 

The King, with Garibaldi at his side, made a triumphal 
entry into Naples, but as the sovereign had kept the popu- 
lation waiting several hours for his appearance, their patience 
and enthusiasm were a good deal worn out, and what they 
had was bestowed more on their own hero than on Victor 
Emmanuel, who to the multitude was far less an Italian than 
a foreigner. 

It is said that Garibaldi, who may not unreasonably 
have imagined himself entitled to name any boon he 
wished in requital of his services, asked that Cavour should 
be dismissed, and that the King would march on to Rome. 
But Victor Emmanuel answered peremptorily : " I will not 
dismiss Cavour, and I will not march on Rome." Nor did 
he review the volunteers, the Army of the South, as he had 
promised, nor incorporate them into his regulars, though 
some of their officers received rank in his army. Gari- 
baldi's troops were really an undisciplined horde, who, 
except on the Volturno, had hardly seen regular warfare, 
and there the brunt of the engagement had fallen upon 
Bixio's command, which included the remnant of the 
Thousand and many foreigners. No wonder that Fanti 
and La Marmora were not disposed to run the risk of dis- 
organizing their Northern army by incorporating into it 
such an element of disorder. But surely, had Cavour been 



GARIBALDI. 239 

with his master at Naples at that moment, something 
diplomatic, if not gracious, might have been done. 

As it was, Garibaldi, with admirable self-control in all his 
words and acts, but with bitterness in his heart, left the 
kingdom he had conquered, and over which at one word he 
could have reigned, to the guidance of men whom he dis- 
trusted ; and on November 9, 1861, having had to borrow 
twenty pounds to pay his debts in Naples, and with little 
more than three scudi in his pocket, he embarked on 
board an American packet ship, — the " Washington," for 
Caprera. 

As he passed out of the Bay of Naples he went on board 
Admiral Mundy's flag-ship, the " Hannibal," to take leave 
of his friend. " He was sadly out of spirits," says the 
Admiral, who replied to an invitation given him to pay a 
visit to Caprera : " I shall be on this station for the 
next eighteen months. By that time you will be away 
from Caprera." " Yes," rejoined the General, with a 
bright smile, " before five months I shall be again in the 
field." "Advice to him was fruitless," adds the Admiral. 
" He was bent on the mad project of his life. Rome, and 
nothing but Rome, would satisfy his aspirations." 

The internal affairs of the Two Sicilies, when Garibaldi 
turned them over to their new administrators, were in 
frightful confusion. Garibaldi was no organizer. He could 
not even rule his family with ordinary prudence and 
discretion. He was a patriot soldier. He was fond of 
quoting a Spanish proverb to the effect that " A man is a 
true man only in war." He was a man of the sixteenth 
century interjected into the nineteenth. There was six- 
teenth century work still to be done in our own day ; it was 
his task to do it, and he fulfilled it nobly; but when he 
came in contact with the nineteenth century it " broke his 
head." He could not understand its methods, — he could 
not act with its men. 

It was just before Garibaldi's retirement, when he had 
openly announced his hostility to Cavour, that Cavour, in a 
private letter, thus wrote of the situation : — 



240 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

" To construct Italy at the present moment it is needful not 
to set Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi in opposition. Gari- 
baldi has an immense moral power. He exercises an immense 
prestige, not only in Italy, but above all in Europe. If to-mor- 
row I entered into a struggle with Garibaldi, it is probable I 
should have with me the majority of old diplomatists, but 
European public opinion would be against me. And public 
opinion would have the right on its side, for Garibaldi has 
rendered to Italy the greatest services that a man could render 
her. He has given Italians confidence in themselves. He has 
proved to Europe that Italians know how to fight and die on a 
field of battle to regain a fatherland." 

In vain the King offered Garibaldi a dukedom, and the 
collar of the order of SS. Annunciata, which would have 
given him rank in Italy equal to that of princes of the blood. 
He might have known beforehand such honors would be 
rejected. A few months later he sent General Tiirr to 
Caprera to present to Theresita, Garibaldi's daughter, a 
magnificent diamond necklace as a wedding present. 
Theresita's husband, Captain Canzio, before long had dis- 
posed of the valuable stones. 

Meantime, the war ended in Italy. The Neapolitans, 
under the eye of their young king, had at last fought bravely, 
but Capua was taken, and then Gaeta. Owing to British 
intervention, the French fleet withdrew its protection from 
Francis II., w T ho took refuge in Rome. The first act of the 
conquerors of the half-ruined town of Gaeta, which they had 
bombarded, was to attend mass for the repose of the souls 
of the brave men, friends and foes, who had fallen during 
the siege. 

The Countess Cesaresco tells an anecdote of Garibaldi in 
Caprera, after his first rejoicing that the war had ended, 
and that Italians would not kill each other any more. In 
the evening he seemed so depressed that one of his friends 
thought him ill. " I am thinking," said Garibaldi, " of 
Francis II., that poor boy. Born to a throne, and perhaps 
not by his own fault hurled from it. He, too, will have to 
feel the bitterness of exile." "Is that all?" asked Gari- 
baldi's friend. " Do you think it nothing?" was the an- 



GARIBALDI. 24 1 

swer. " Why, then, did you go to Marsala? " " It was my 
duty to go," Garibaldi said quickly; " else how could there 
have been one Italy?" 

So Garibaldi returned to his island of rocks — to dig and 
to eat, as he said himself, the potatoes he had planted in 
the spring. 

But what marvellous work had been done by him whilst 
those potatoes had been growing ! At Caprera he had to 
take charge of an ill-regulated family, and to marry his 
daughter Theresita to the man she had chosen, — a man 
brave, indeed, but in other respects more like the sordid, 
grasping villain of old romance than the fitting son-in-law 
of a great hero. 

Naples, when the King assumed its administration, be- 
came a serious subject of anxiety for Cavour. Every ele- 
ment of anarchy that had for a century and a half been 
accumulating under a wretched government, was now let 
loose. A political cloak was given to brigandage, for the 
brigands proclaimed themselves soldiers of King Francis 
and his fallen 1'egime. 

" Then, too, there was the Army of the South, — Garibaldi's 
own army, — which General Fanti, the War Minister, refused to 
recognize in the interest of his own army ; and in the interest 
of diplomacy, such an army could not be permitted to hover 
upon the Roman frontier with Garibaldi not so far off, eager to 
lead them." 

At that moment Cavour was conducting delicate negotia- 
tions to obtain peaceable possession of the Eternal City. 
u Had Cavour lived," said Victor Emmanuel, " we should 
have been in Rome in six months." But Garibaldi was 
wholly unable to appreciate the slower methods of states- 
manship. He wanted eagerly to rush at everything. He 
had been elected a member of the Turin Parliament, 
and he went to it determined to beard Cavour. For 
some days after he reached Turin he was too ill with rheu- 
matic fever to take his seat, but at last, in his red shirt and 
his poncho, and attended by crowds of his old legionaries, 

16 



242 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

who had assembled at Turin to support him if their pres- 
ence should be necessary, he appeared in the chamber and 
rose to make his speech. 

Here is an account of the scene, as related by M. 
d'Ideville, who was present : 

" Alas ! the great actor did not know his part. He had 
scarcely pronounced a few words, when his memory failed him, 
. . . but suddenly abandoning all attempts to conform himself 
to the rules of parliament, he angrily flung his notes away and 
spoke out bluntly. With threatening voice and gestures he 
addressed himself to the ministerial bench, declaring that never 
would he clasp the hand of the man who had sold his country 
to the foreigner, or ally himself with a government whose cold 
and mischievous hand was trying to foment a fratricidal war. 

" Cavour restrained himself with an effort, and made no allu- 
sion in his reply to the accusations of Garibaldi. Baron Rica- 
soli administered the rebuke, affecting to defend Garibaldi from 
what he declared to be a calumnious report of an intemperate 
and unbecoming speech that the General had made a few days 
before to a deputation from Genoa. ' I know this man,' he 
said. ' I know how dear to him is his country. I know the 
sacrifices he has made. As for me, I dare assert that it is 
impossible that the odious words attributed to him should have 
fallen from his lips. For who, great as he may be, would dare 
in his pride to assign himself in our country a place apart? 
Who would dare to claim for himself a monoply of devotedness 
and patriotism ? Among us a single head should tower above 
all others, — that of our King.' Then Nino Bixio, Garibaldi's 
Secondo nel Mille, rose and apologized to the Assembly for the 
strong language used by his chief ; appealing to Cavour's gen- 
erosity to forget what had happened. Garibaldi, who by this 
time had cooled, ended the debate, saying : 'I am sure Count 
Cavour loves his country; let him therefore use his influence in 
support of my bill for arming Italy; let the volunteers of the 
Army of the South be called into service; thus we shall be 
reconciled.' " 

A few days later, Cavour and Garibaldi, by desire of the 
King, had an interview, which Cavour, in a letter to a 
friend, has thus described : — 

"My interview with Garibaldi was courteous though not 
warm. We both kept within the limits of reserve. I ac- 



GARIBALDI. 243 

quainted him, however, with the line of conduct which the gov- 
ernment intends to follow as regards Austria, as well as France, 
assuring him that on these points no compromise was possible. 
He declared himself ready to accept the programme, and to be 
willing to pledge himself not to act contrary to the views of the 
government. He only asked me to do something for the Army 
of the South. I gave him no promise, but I told him I would 
seek means to provide as well as might be for the future of his 
officers. We parted, if not good friends, at least without any 
irritation." 

But this semi-reconciliation was one of the last acts in 
the noble life of Cavour. The winter of 1860-61 was 
for him full of incessant labor and incessant anxiety. The 
difficulties of his position were enormous. He had written 
in January : — 

" The King does not look upon his task as finished. He 
knows that he must labor to constitute Italian independence 
and unity on solid grounds, — an end which will not be attained 
until the questions of Rome and Venice have received a com- 
plete solution, conformable to the wishes of the Italian people." 

Alas ! the solution of the Roman question was one to tax 
to the uttermost the skill of any statesman, and it cannot be 
held to have received its " complete solution " even now. 
But Cavour was determined to have Rome in due time for 
the Italian capital, and he carried through the Chambers a 
declaration that Rome was the true capital of Italy. " When 
I once see the King enthroned in the Capitol," he would say, 
" I will retire to Leri, to plant cabbages, tend my vines, and 
repose myself for the rest of my life." 

Alas ! he was to find that repose, not at his country seat, 
but in his grave. 

Early in June, 1 861, it was rumored that he did not seem 
well, and on the 6th of that month he died. 

" I have never worked so hard as I do now," he had said 
sadly to a friend during the week before he broke down. 
" His brain and frame," writes the Countess Cesaresco, 
" worked without rest, without recreation, broke down at 
last, and would work no more." 



244 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

On May 29 he had returned from the Chamber after 
speaking. He seemed much agitated, and in the night was 
taken very ill. The evening before his death, the King, 
unannounced, entered his chamber, and stole up to his 
bed. Cavour opened his eyes, and had just strength to put 
out his feeble hand. Victor Emmanuel leaned over the 
bed and kissed him, then departed in tears, and with a 
heavy heart. 

" The life of Cavour had been given wholly to the service of 
his country. As he said of Italy, she was la sua sfiosa. He 
wedded her in the hour of her extremest need; he left her 
equipped with freedom, dowered with hope, ready, after oblitera- 
tion for centuries from the map of Europe, to take her place 
among the nations of the world." 

He had long beforehand received a promise from a cer- 
tain Fra Giovanni that, when dying, he would administer to 
him the last sacraments, and not let him die like Santa 
Rosa. This promise was fulfilled, and immediately there- 
after Cavour was heard to murmur, almost his last words, 
"A free State, — a free Church" — and, "tell the people 
of Turin I died a Christian." 

Garibaldi went back to Caprera, where presents poured 
in upon him from his admirers in all lands. On one occa- 
sion, when his heart had been moved by accounts of desti- 
tution among the peasants in some part of Austria, some 
valuable gifts being brought to him at that moment he 
asked leave to sell them, and devote the proceeds (two 
thousand francs) to these Austrian poor. But, from Gari- 
baldi's autobiographical memoirs, published six years after 
his death, it does not appear that he ever forgave " that 
fox," as he continued to the last to call Cavour. 




URBANO RATTAZZT. 



ITALY MADE — NOT COMPLETED. 247 

division of Italy into three parts, — the northern one to 
belong to Victor Emmanuel : the Pope to rule in the centre ; 
and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies (under what govern- 
ment it does not appear) to be restored. 

Absurd as this rumor was, it had its effect on Garibaldi. 
As president of a rifle corps association he travelled through 
Lombardy and the newly annexed duchies, exciting the 
young men. The Rattazzi ministry did not oppose him. 
He was carrying out their policy ; he was playing into 
their hands. 

Mazzini, however, wholly disapproved the scheme of 
Garibaldi, and would take no part in it. He thought, — 
as, indeed, did Victor Emmanuel, — that the first step to 
gaming Rome should be to recover Venice. 

So Garibaldi had his own way unopposed, and again 
landed in Sicily. At Palermo he found the two princes, 
Umberto and Amadeo, and passed some hours in their 
company. His reception in Palermo, and throughout Sicily, 
was triumphal. He was received as the Liberator, not as 
the leader of a revolt from the authority he had himself 
established. However, he never admitted that he was a 
rebel. He always said his only object was to make Rome 
a present to his King. 

His claim to interfere in Roman affairs was founded on 
his having been made Dictator of the Roman Republic in 
1849, when the triumvirate broke down. He said his ap- 
pointment had never been reversed, and that legally he was 
still Dictator. 

By what appears to have been connivance on the part of 
Rattazzi, an Italian ship of war in the harbor of Catania 
moved out of the way at the right moment, enabling Gari- 
baldi to embark his Red Shirts on two merchant ships, 
which he seized by a coup de ?nain. The Straits of Messina 
were safely crossed, and the expedition was landed as suc- 
cessfully as Garibaldi's first set of volunteers had been, 
three years before, at Melito, in Calabria. Then the 
enemy they came to fight was Bourbon tyranny, — now 
Garibaldi thus set forth his views in a proclamation : — 



248 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

" I bow before the majesty of Victor Emmanuel, king of the 
nation, but I am hostile to a ministry which has nothing Italian 
but the name ; . . . the livery of a foreign master will never be 
a title of esteem for any minister of ours." 

General Cialdini was in command in Southern Italy. As 
a soldier of the regular army of Italy, he had the contempt 
of his class for volunteers and guerillas. He resolved to 
catch Garibaldi in a net, and took measures to prevent his 
re-embarkation. 

For some days, Garibaldi, who had landed with three 
thousand men, wandered about in mountain passes, where 
half his force deserted him. No one joined him. He is 
bitter at all times in his posthumous biography against the 
Italian peasantry. His best men were always from the 
intelligent classes, and he deprecates the action of those 
who, with what he calls the "parrot cry of freedom for all," 
would put it out of the power of an intelligent minority to 
rule their country. Nevertheless, his last public speech in 
England, when he paid his visit to London in 1865, was to 
urge on all nations the adoption of universal suffrage. 

Hungry, wean 7 , and dispirited, the remainder of his 
forces encamped for the night of August 28, 1862, on the 
brow of the hill of Aspromonte (The Mount of Bitterness). 
" The night was wet and gloomy. The rain put out their 
fires, every rag on their backs was soaked, and they had no 
provisions." 

Early in the morning the royal troops, under Colonel 
Pallavicini, ascended the hill. The forces were drawn up 
facing each other. Garibaldi and his son Menotti ad- 
vanced before their men, ordering them to restrain them- 
selves, and not to fire. Unhappily some men, young and 
inexperienced, were unable to control themselves ; a few 
shots from their ranks were returned by a volley from the 
regulars. Garibaldi and his son were both wounded, — the 
General in his left thigh by a spent ball, and by a bullet 
which buried itself in his foot, and was not extracted for 
many months. 

Wounded, and a prisoner, Garibaldi was carried to the 



ITALY MADE— NOT COMPLETED. 249 

seaboard ; his forces were disarmed and disbanded. At Silla, 
on the coast, he was separated from his staff, and put on 
board a man-of-war to be taken to the Fort of Varignano, 
on the Gulf of Spezia. Preparations had not been made 
for his arrival, and his quarters were far from comfortable 
for a sick man. The King sent him his own surgeons, but 
they failed to find the ball in his foot. It was removed by 
a French surgeon nearly a year later. 

Every kind of attention was lavished on Garibaldi in his 
prison, especially by ladies and foreigners. His personal 
friends filled the hotels and lodging-houses at Spezia. He 
suffered terribly from his wound, in addition to which he 
was a martyr to rheumatism. 

In October, however, came an amnesty, which released 
Garibaldi from Fort Varignano, and he moved to Spezia, 
where no king could have been surrounded with more 
enthusiastic courtiers ; and the whole of the busy port, the 
modern naval arsenal of Italy, echoed from morning till 
night with the Garibaldi hymn. 

The Rattazzi government seems to have done many little 
things to " spite " (if we may use the homely word) their 
illustrious prisoner. But Victor Emmanuel grieved bitterly 
over the affair of Aspromonte. " The Garibaldians were all 
in the wrong, still they were his subjects, and the thought 
that Italian blood should have been shed by his soldiers 
affected him deeply." 

Bitter, indeed, must have been Garibaldi's memories of 
Aspromonte when he could speak thus in the memoirs he 
left behind him to be printed after his death : " The crime 
committed by me of having gained ten victories, and the 
insult of having aggrandized the King's dominions, have 
been things such as monarchs never forgive." 

No less bitterly does he speak of the Calabrian peasantry, 
who, he says, refused his volunteers the most necessary 
food. " It was worse than if we had been robbers. It was 
not the first time that I saw an Italian population inert and 
indifferent to their would-be deliverers." 

Of his treatment after his captivity, — while other ac- 



250 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

counts speak of it as full of generosity and sympathy, and 
although in after years he took pains to show regard and 
appreciation to the officer who had had him in charge, — 
he says : — 

" I feel repugnance to speak of the miseries I endured. . . . 
Some rubbed their hands when they heard that I was sorely 
wounded. Others abjured their friendship for me, and there 
were others who said they had deceived themselves when for- 
merly praising some merit of mine. . . . True, some common- 
place civilities were shown me, such as are common in the case 
of great criminals when they are led to the scaffold. Yet, in- 
stead of leaving me in a hospital at Reggio or Messina, I was 
put on board a frigate, and carried to the Varignano, thus 
making me cross the whole Tyrrhene Sea, and inflicting the 
greatest torment on me through my wound." 

The next event in Garibaldi's life was his triumphant 
visit to England, which took place in March, 1864. It was 
not the first time he had received a hearty welcome in "the 
land of the free," though on the former occasion he came 
only as master of a trading vessel and landed at Newcastle. 
He was then hailed as the man who had fought the French 
at Rome. Now he had won a kingdom for his sovereign, 
had presented it to him, and had then retired into private 
life. In return, the armed forces of that king had made 
him permanently lame, and had taken him prisoner. This 
was how the case presented itself to the minds of the great 
mass of Englishmen. He was to them a sort of demi-god. 
Had they not seen representations of his unrivalled feats of 
heroism at Astley's Circus, where the future triumphs of the 
Wild West Show were rehearsed night after night, in the 
winter of 1859-60, before crowded London audiences, with 
Garibaldi in his red shirt for their hero ? Garibaldi flying 
across the Atlantic ; Garibaldi's exploits in Uruguay ; Gari- 
baldi bringing bands of wild horsemen from the Pampas, 
and Charrua Indians, to fight the Austrians \ all offered 
to crowded audiences, with daring feats of horsemanship, 
and the din of musketry ? x\nd did not mothers dress their 
little boys in " garibaldis " ? What could popularity run 
rampant have done more? 



ITALY MADE — NOT COMPLETED. 25 1 

There was considerable diplomatic discussion before 
Lord Palmerston could be persuaded to permit this visit, 
but at last Garibaldi came to Stafford House, as the guest 
of the Duke of Sutherland. He came by a P. and O. 
steamer, which picked him up at Malta ; and, as a writer 
who relates his journey says, " happy were those who, re- 
turning from their Eastern travels, found themselves on 
board the ' Ripon ' with a real lion for their fellow- 
passenger, and ten days in which to gaze on him." 

The Duke of Sutherland and other friends, English and 
Italian, met him before he landed. Already there were 
dissensions in the ranks of his admirers. Some complained 
that he was being monopolized by the aristocracy. 

The Mayor of Southampton officially received him, the 
town was dressed with flags, a public reception at the Town 
Hall took place, — well ! we all know, when a hero is a 
nation's guest, what programme of receptions, dinners, de- 
putations, speeches, etc., etc., lies before him. And when 
this hero reached the Nine Elms station on his entrance to 
London, where dense crowds had been waiting his arrival for 
hours, the English cheer that welcomed him was, as he said 
afterwards, like nothing he had ever heard. 

Ladies dressed themselves in the Italian colors ; men 
donned the camicia rossa ; street singers bawled ditties in 
his honor ; bands played the Garibaldi hymn and " See the 
Conquering Hero comes," till their brazen throats seemed 
hoarse. Every manner of society, — political, religious, lite- 
rary, or philanthropic, — sent its deputation, with an appro- 
priate speech and banner, to join in the reception. Poor 
Garibaldi, still lame, and weak from recent illness, must have 
had a trying day ! One day of rest was granted him, and 
then the receptions and the speeches and the sight-seeing 
began again. The Italians in London presented to him a 
sword, and another was given to Menotti. Both father and 
son said in reply that they hoped to carry them to Rome 
and Venice. 

In a great reception at the Crystal Palace, which was to 
have been a musical entertainment, the whole audience 



252 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

rose to their feet at the first strains of the Garibaldi hymn, 
and refused to hear anything else. 

" O Garibaldi, nostro salvator, 
Ti seguiremo al campo d' onor ! 

Risorga Italia. 

II sol di liberta ! 
All' armi, all' armi, andiamo ! " 

('• O Garibaldi, saviour of our land, 

Lead us to honour's held, — a faithful band! 
Revive our Italy, 
Dear land of liberty 
To arms ! To arms ! To arms ! Soldiers march on ! ") 

'• All. turning towards the hero of the occasion, men and 
women, artistes, orchestra, and conductor, joined in one over- 
powering demonstration of enthusiasm to that quiet demure- 
looking man, who sat there in a sort of glad but quiet wonder." 

A month had passed with daily demonstrations on the 
part of Englishmen, and Garibaldi was preparing to set out 
on a tour through the North of England, when he suddenly 
renounced his design, and gave out that he should go back 
to Caprera. He said his health required rest, which one 
thinks might be true enough, but the real cause of his sud- 
den return to Caprera, was a quiet intimation from Lord 
Palmerston that his visit had lasted long enough, and that 
it was desirable to calm the ferment it created, which wa s 
beginning to create disquietude in other countries. 

So Garibaldi left England in the Duke of Sutherland's 
yacht, having made a little detour to Penzance to greet " his 
Englishman," — the Colonel Peard who had played his part 
at Eboli. 

" Garibaldi would receive no purse from his English friends/' 
says Mr. Bent. ,; They wished to subscribe a sum of money, 
which, if invested, would have kept him from want for the rest 
of his days, . . . but he gladly accepted the yacht 'Osprey.' 
which they offered him. for the old General loved to skim along 
the blue waters of the inland sea. and there it lay for a while at 
Caprera, until, as is the fate of most toys, the General got tired 
of it. and went out to sea in it less and less. Ricciotti Garibaldi 
looked on with covetous eyes at so much wealth lying idle in the 



ITALY MADE — NOT COMPLETED. 253 

harbor of Caprera, so he asked his father's permission to go a 
cruise one day in the ' Osprey,' which was readily granted, and 
since then the ' Osprey ' has been no more seen in the waters of 
Caprera." 

When Garibaldi died in 1882 the London "Spectator" 
spoke thus of him : — 

" We ask ourselves the question, — Why did this man, with 
no claim of birth, no careful education, and no great power of 
thought, so enchant the European democracy that he was for a 
quarter of a century a perceptible force in Europe, that he was 
deeply reverenced by millions who had never seen him, and 
that, though he had no wealth, he was the single private man in 
Europe, in an age when private war is extinct, at whose bidding 
an army would spring up from the ground ? The explanation is 
said to be his career ; but not only was his best army raised be- 
fore men knew that he was a great guerilla chief, but his career, 
though marked by one almost miraculous success, was by no 
means a successful one. In regular warfare he was always 
beaten. He failed entirely as a legislator ; his dictatorship in 
Naples produced no civil fruit, and we can remember no great 
measure in Italy in which he took a prominent part. That Ital- 
ians should love him for his action in Italy, for his defence of 
Rome, for his marvellous overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty, — 
a feat which stands alone in history, — for his still more marvel- 
lous surrender, for the sake of Italy alone, of the kingdom he 
had won, is intelligible enough; but why did other peoples 
love him ? Patriotism does not necessarily endear the patriot to 
strangers, nor does all mankind always honor the deliverer of 
part of it. 

" W T herein lay the charm of Garibaldi ? We think it lay in 
two words, ' unselfishness ' and 'heroism,' which, when found 
together under circumstances in which both can be fully per- 
ceived, exert over the masses of mankind a sort of supernatural 
charm, till they are content to believe without either seeing or 
knowing. To the multitude in all European countries Garibaldi 
was a figure nearly resembling that which Joan of Arc must 
have presented to the peasantry of Northern France, — a being 
so heroic as to be almost more than mortal, incapable of fear, 
incapable of mistake, incapable of final defeat, yet seeking 
nothing, asking nothing, desiring nothing, utterly devoted to 
them. . . . Nobody felt distrust of Garibaldi or rivalry towards 
him, or suspicion about him. Friend or enemy, detractor or 



254 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

worshipper, no European doubted that Garibaldi desired the 
good of mankind to the utter forgetfulness of self, and would, 
if once in motion, go forward to secure it, uninfluenced by anv 
bribe, undeterred by any danger, unfettered by any fear. . . . 
That quality of disinterestedness excites in men reverence to all 
who possess it, and when seen in a great hero, a man who has 
done marvellous things in a marvellous way. who has. so to 
speak, walked up to the lion and rent him with his hands alone, 
who has personal dignity in its highest form, and a face that the 
ablest French caricaturist could make only heroic, it develops 
reverence to passion.*' 



Sincerely grieved as Victor Emmanuel had been by the 
sufferings and humiliations of Garibaldi, he had about the 
same time to endure other great trials. The sympathy felt 
throughout Italy for the sufferer of Aspromonte, caused the 
ministry of Rattazzi to become intensely unpopular. Rat- 
tazzi was replaced by Farini, the Italian historian, who has 
written the story of this period in a book which has had the 
honor of being translated by Mr. Gladstone. Farini was 
soon succeeded by Minghetti, a patriotic and honest states- 
man, but one not qualified to fill the place of Cavour. 
Cavour had nearly succeeded in making an agreement by 
which the French troops were to evacuate Rome and the 
Papal States in a fortnight, Italy undertaking to guard the 
Papal frontier from invasion. The exploit of Garibaldi 
changed the situation. Minghetti could only obtain the 
Emperor's promise that his soldiers should in two years 
leave the Pope to himself to take care of his temporal 
power ; and he exacted that in the meantime the Italian 
capital should be moved from Turin to either Florence or 
Naples. 

When Signor Minghetti first broke this matter to the 
King, Victor Emmanuel was overwhelmed, and pleaded, 
even with tears, that his native city might be spared such a 
cruel sacrifice, at least until he could be proclaimed King 
of Italy at the Capitol. " You know I am a true Turinese," 
he said, " and no one can understand what a wrench it is 
to mv heart to think that I must one day abandon this city, 



ITALY MADE — NOT COMPLETED. 2$$ 

where I have so many affections, where there is such a 
feeling of attachment to my family, where the bones of my 
fathers and all my dear ones repose. However," he added, 
" if we cannot do otherwise, I will make even this sacrifice 
for Italy." 

The sacrifice was made doubly hard by the indignation 
which the new convention with the Emperor Napoleon 
created in Italy. The ministry was forced to resign, and 
La Marmora was called to the helm of State, but when the 
decision of the King, his ministers, and parliament, was an- 
nounced to the people of Turin, disgraceful riots took place. 
Guests going to a court ball were stoned as they left their 
carriages, and other popular demonstrations were made in 
various ways against the King. Deeply indignant, Victor 
Emmanuel set out immediately for Florence, accompanied 
by his prime minister. 

It was some time before his anger cooled. He showed 
much reluctance to forgive his Turinese. The blow had 
struck home. 

There came, too, in these days a domestic affliction, — 
Odone, the youngest son of Victor Emmanuel, a cripple 
and an invalid, died, to the great grief of his affectionate 
family, to whom his bright intelligence and gentle disposi- 
tion had endeared him. The family circle was broken up. 
Princess Clotilde was away in Paris ; Maria Pia had made a 
happier marriage, having wedded the young King of Portu- 
gal. The two robust and soldierly brothers, Umberto and 
Amadeo, remained as yet unmarried. 

During the years 1862-64 a great many discussions un- 
known to the general public were going on in diplomatic 
circles. Poland in 1863 broke into revolt ; Count Bismarck 
was laying hands on Denmark ; Italy was eagerly assuring 
France and Prussia that she would assist both of them, or 
either of them, in a war with Austria, it being understood 
that the price of her help was to be the restitution of 
Venetia. 

English statesmen were desirous of seeing Venetia giver, 
back to Italy, but not at the price of a Continental war. 



2 $6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Various ways of inducing Austria to part with Venetia were 
proposed by diplomatists. Austria might exchange it for 
Poland, or the Danubian principalities might be taken 
from Turkey, and offered her in its stead. But as time 
went on it seemed evident to Italian diplomatists that their 
cause was secondary in the eyes of European statesmen to 
others that they had more at heart. France wanted war 
for the liberation of Poland ; England espoused the cause 
of Denmark ; while the Emperor Napoleon continued to 
urge patience on the Italians, saying, " Have I not told you 
more than once already, — Austria and Prussia are now in 
accordance, but not for long. They soon will have to fight, 
and then will be Italy's opportunity." 

As by degrees diplomatists became aware of the truth in 
these words, Italian statesmen endeavored through the 
mediation of Napoleon to obtain from Austria the cession 
of Venetia in return for Italy's promise of neutrality in the 
event of a Prusso-Austrian war. 

Poor Maximilian, still contending with his own troubles 
in Mexico, had always urged upon his family the restoration 
of Venetia, which could never be otherwise than a dissatis- 
fied, unrestful portion of the Austrian Empire. The gov- 
ernment at Vienna did not, however, accept the Italian 
proposal. 

Then the government of Victor Emmanuel sent a secret 
diplomatic agent to Berlin to negotiate an alliance with 
Prussia. Every day increased the probabilities of war, the 
great cause of dispute being the Schleswig-Holstein question. 
The Austrian government began to see that it would not be 
well to have war on the north, and war in the south of the 
empire at the same time, and at last intimated to Louis 
Napoleon that if he would remain neutral she would make 
him a present of Venetia. The Emperor at once communi- 
cated this offer to the Cabinet of Victor Emmanuel, but the 
treaty offensive and defensive had been signed with Prussia, 
and the Re Galantuomo would not break his word. Possi- 
bly, too, the King and his ministers shared the popular 
Italian feeling, Italia fara da se, and were confident the 



ITALY MADE — NOT COMPLETED. 257 

valor of their troops would gloriously unite Venetia to Italy 
by force of arms. 

La Marmora quitted his post as Prime Minister to take 
command of the King's army on the Mincio. Garibaldi 
received a message at Caprera from the King, urging him 
to take charge of the volunteers, who were to serve in the 
Trentinoj and in June, 1866, while the Seven Weeks' War 
was in progress in Germany, the Italian and Austrian 
armies were in the field. The Austrians were commanded 
by the Archduke Albrecht, a general of military experience 
and high character. His troops had enormous advantages 
in organization and discipline, and were also in possession of 
the Quadrilateral fortresses, — but their numbers were very 
inferior to those brought into the field by the Italians. The 
Archduke's forces did not exceed seventy thousand men, 
including those in garrison ; the Italian army was estimated 
at two hundred thousand, exclusive of Garibaldi's volunteers, 
who were estimated at thirty-five thousand, though probably 
the force available was not half that number. 

General La Marmora crossed the Mincio (the boundary 
between Lombardy and Venetia) without opposition. Half 
the army under General Cialdini had been sent to the 
southward, their commander's headquarters being at 
Bologna. They were probably intended to draw off the 
Archduke, and to march direct to Venice. But the Aus- 
trian commander had no intention of being turned aside. 
His first object was to defeat La Marmora. 

On June 21, war between Austria and Italy was declared ; 
on the 23d La Marmora's army crossed the Mincio; on 
the 24th the battle began under a burning sun. Nothing 
could exceed the personal bravery of the Italians. No man 
bore higher testimony to this than the Archduke ; but it 
must be added that the generalship on the Italian side 
seems on this occasion to have been deplorable. La Mar- 
mora, besides engaging with only half his forces, the other 
half being with Cialdini far away, did not call into action 
two large bodies of troops that were near at hand. For 
the second time Italians and Austrians encountered each 

17 



258 ITALY IX THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

other on the plain of Custozza, the scene of Charles 
Albert's defeat in 1848. Up to 3 p. m. the battle was unde- 
cided. Then the Austrian general paused to rest his troops, 
and La Marmora, seeing the importance of getting fresh 
men into the field, rode himself to find and bring up 
certain reserves posted at a great distance, instead of order- 
ing up others that were near at hand. " This inexplicable 
proceeding left the army without a commander in chief for 
several hours. The battle was renewed ; the generals of 
division followed their individual inspirations, but the Aus- 
trians steadily gained ground. Toward sunset, the Archduke, 
persuaded that the Italian reinforcements, whose arrival 
he had so much feared, were never coming, prepared for a 
final effort. At 7 o'clock in the evening his soldiers suc- 
ceeded in storming the heights of Custozza, and Austria 
could write a second battle of that name among her 
victories." 

It is wonderful that no attempt was made to retrieve the 
disaster. But some irresponsible person had telegraphed to 
Cialdini, as if from an authoritative source, " Irreparable 
disaster. Cover the capital"; and consternation seems 
even- where to have reigned. 

Ten days later came accounts of the battle of Sadowa or 
Kdniggratz, in Bohemia, in which Prussia vanquished the 
Austrians. Sadowa was one of the decisive battles of the 
world. The Emperor Napoleon intervened to prevent the 
Prussian army from marching on Vienna. The price of his 
intervention was to be the gift of Venetia. Napoleon al- 
ways exacted pay for his services, and it is said this was the 
reason why England refused to accept his aid in settling the 
Schleswig-Holstein question. 

This cession of Venetia to Napoleon was part of a former 
treaty, but, as the secret of that treaty- had been well kept, 
this cession, less than two weeks after the battle of Cus- 
tozza, while two large Italian armies were still in the field, 
was a surprise to Europe, and not less so to Italy, where in 
the public mind it produced embarrassment and mortifica- 
tion, rather than joy. Italy had lost her military prestige — 



ITALY MADE— NOT COMPLETED. 259 

the object of her heart's desire had been, at it were, tossed 
over to her. It had not been won, as she had hoped, by 
the valor of her sons. 

Here is contemporary opinion as to this campaign. It is 
from the pen of Charles Lever, at that time British consul 
at Trieste, who had, from his official position, a certain 
inside view of the state of affairs. 

" Napoleon's policy amounted to this : ' It is impossible to say 
what result of this war will most serve or disserve me. A vic- 
torious Austria might undo all I have done in Italy, and send 
me in a bill for the damage besides. Prussia successful means 
a strong and united Germany on my flank, more than a rival 
for the supremacy I have exercised in Europe. The great 
point, therefore, is that the war should end without any over- 
whelming results, — that all the powers engaged should be 
weakened by the struggle, and none be a great gainer.' ... A 
plan of campaign was drawn out, and given to La Marmora, a 
man who, though a brave soldier, was constitutionally fashioned 
to be a dupe. ... La Marmora had received his orders from 
the Tuileries. and Archduke Albrecht had also his instructions. 
He was to beat the Italians, but not to follow up his victory. 
. . . General Fanti, La Marmora's countryman and colleague, 
always said: 'One of these days he is sure to run his stupid 
head against the Quadrilateral ' ; but even Fanti never sus- 
pected that that ' stupid head ' would be dashed at it by Louis 
Napoleon." 

Only two things might have consoled Italians for the un- 
welcome gift of Venetia and the loss of the battle of 
Custozza, — a great naval victory in the Adriatic, or the 
success of Garibaldi's volunteers in the Trentino. 

Italy had hurried into the war with an inadequately 
organized commissariat, which would have told more had 
the war lasted even a few weeks ; she had also paid little 
regard to her naval preparations ; all was confusion in 
her dockyards, and in her fleet disorder. Admiral Persano 
had been pressed to take command in the Adriatic. He 
objected that he had for some time retired into private life, 
and was a stranger to the officers and men he was to com- 
mand, but he yielded to his sovereign's wish, and accepted 



260 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the position. The fleet placed under his orders comprised 
thirty-three vessels, of which twelve were ironclads. The 
Austrians had twenty-seven ships, including seven ironclads ; 
they were commanded by Admiral Tegethoff, the same who 
eighteen months after brought from Mexico the body of the 
unhappy Emperor Maximilian. Tegethoff worked with 
might and main to get his ships in order; Persano does 
not seem to have appreciated the haste that was necessary. 
Depretis, the Minister of Marine, was a lawyer, unac- 
quainted with the sea. After some weeks of inaction, Per- 
sano, under direct commands from Depretis, decided to 
attack Lissa, a fortified island on the coast of Dalmatia. 
He reached it July 16, and began a heavy bombardment, 
which was measurably successful. On the morning of the 
19th the captain of the " Esploratore " signalled to the 
Admiral that suspicious vessels were in sight. The Admiral 
returned for answer, " Probably fishing boats." But soon 
the truth was revealed : they were ironclads. The 
Admiral had not anticipated the arrival of the hostile fleet. 
He was intent on landing troops to attack a fort on Lissa. 
His own vessels were scattered and in disorder. 

The battle is described as the naval counterpart of a 
charge of cavalry. 

" TegethofFs aim was to come to the relief of Lissa, and, as 
the Italian ships lay between him and that place, he charged 
through them. Being totally inferior in number and weight of 
guns, he dashed prow on to force his way, and went head- 
foremost at the ' Re d' Italia,' because he believed her to be 
the flagship. She was scarcely moving at the time, having 
stopped her engines to enable Admiral Persano to change his 
flag to the iron ram ' II Affondatore.' Being, besides, an ill-built 
ship, she gave way at once, and, cut down from bulwark 
to water-line, with a yawning gap sixty feet wide in her flank, 
she heeled over and sank in thirty-four seconds with all on 
board of her.' 1 

After the "Re d' Italia" was disabled, one of her seamen, 
thinking to assert a claim for pity, began to pull down her 
flag, but a young officer pushed him aside, and hoisted it 



1 



ITAL Y MADE — NO T COMPLE TED. 26 1 

again. She went down with the Italian colors flying, and 
cheers from all on board. There were five hundred and fifty 
men in her, and although Admiral Tegethoff sent all possi- 
ble assistance, very few lives were saved. Soon after, the 
gunboat " Palestro " caught fire and blew up, with over two 
hundred men on board. 

When the Austrians avowed that the suddenness and 
completeness of the calamity, when the "Re d' Italia " sank, 
almost stunned them, we may imagine the horror and con- 
sternation that were felt by the Italians. Indecision and 
confusion reigned throughout their fleet. Their ships were 
scattered without being dispersed. It was scarcely a naval 
action, though Tegethoff did all a man could do, with a force 
so disorganized to oppose him. Finally Persano collected 
together his ships, and led them out of action. He sailed 
back to Ancona ; as he entered the harbor, his flagship, the 
" Affondatore," sank, from injuries received during the 
battle. 

" The rage and sorrow throughout Italy defies description. 
Persano attempted to explain what no man can explain — a 
scene of confusion, misunderstanding, and blunder. The nation 
was not in a forgiving mood, — in fact, the people had pardoned 
too much already, and in such cases the last offender pays the 
penalty for all." 

In spite of his past services, Persano was heavily dealt 
with ; he was dismissed the service and degraded. 

Garibaldi's expedition into the Trentino, with the ulti- 
mate object of capturing Trieste, was not more successful. 
He had hoped to be sent into Dalmatia, to raise that old 
Venetian province ; then to march on and attack Vienna ; 
instead of which he was shut up in the mountain passes of 
the Alps. In Naples he had had an enthusiastic people 
with him. They gave him little military or material aid, 
but more than enough cheering. The mountaineers of the 
Alps were loyal to their Austrian rulers. They liked better 
light taxation and an orderly administration than the con- 
scription, the taxes, the sacrifices demanded by the Italian 



262 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

government. Italia Redenta it has been of late years the 
fashion to call this mountain province, and many unsuccess- 
ful attempts have been made to revolutionize it. Again, 
Garibaldi's volunteers had never been opposed to regular 
soldiers, except in the case of the half-hearted Neapolitans. 
The regular troops of Austria were quite another foe. 
Garibaldi in his previous military operations had the free- 
dom of action of a guerilla commander, now he was under 
orders from a war department, — a department that seemed 
to care little for his wants and mismanaged his supplies, so 
that his soldiers were compelled either to pillage or to 
starve. Garibaldi cannot find words hard enough, in his 
posthumous biography, to describe his contempt for the 
rank and file of his Trentino army. Of the thirty-five thou- 
sand volunteers of whom it was supposed to consist, not 
half joined, and out of those in one day three thousand 
were dismissed as bad characters. They fought, however, 
bravely when occasion offered ; and Menotti and Ricciotti 
Garibaldi distinguished themselves on several occasions as 
commanders. Canzio's better qualities also came out when 
there was no opportunity for plundering his facile father- 
in-law. 

The Garibaldians met with some successes, but these had 
no results. " If ever I lose my senses," wrote Garibaldi, " it 
will be in this campaign." He could no longer sit a horse, 
being crippled with rheumatism. 

The battle of Lissa was fought five days before the Prus- 
sians signed the preliminaries of peace with Austria, in. 
which no mention was made of Prussia's Italian ally, and 
thus the combined armies of the Empire of Austria, three 
hundred and fifty thousand men, were set free to make war 
upon Italy. Such was the wrath and disappointment of the 
Italians at their defeats by land and sea, that a large part of 
the population, and even some of the leading statesmen of 
Italy, were eager to continue the war at all risks and against 
all odds. But La Marmora played the same part that was 
played by Thiers at Bordeaux after the Franco-Prussian 
war; he acted as a true patriot by forcing his country 



ITALY MADE — NOT COMPLETED. 263 

against her will to cease hostilities. " They will say that 
we are traitors," said the King. " Come what may," an- 
swered La Marmora, "I take the whole responsibility on 
myself." " This is too much," answered Victor Emmanuel, 
with tears brimming in his eyes, " I too must have my 
share." 

Garibaldi's volunteers, who had accomplished nothing 
though they had fought bravely, were thrown into a ferment 
by orders to evacuate the enemy's territory. Their leader, 
who had hated the expedition from first to last, wrote one 
word in answer to the telegram commanding him to retreat. 
" Obbedisco" " Do you obey," he said to the would-be 
mutineers around him; "I have obeyed — do likewise." 
One of them cried out : "To Rome ! " " Yes," said their 
chief, " we will march to Rome together." 

Peace was signed October 3. The animosity between 
France and Prussia was increased by the pretended good 
offices of the French Emperor. The Countess Cesaresco 
tells us that — 

" The comedy of the cession of Venetia to Napoleon, was 
enacted between General Le Bceuf and the Austrian military 
commandant of Venice. Among other formalities, the French 
delegate went the round of the museums and galleries to see 
that everything was in its place. Suddenly he came upon a 
most suspicious blank space. ' A picture is missing here,' he 
said. 'It is,' blandly assented the Austrian officer. 'It must 
be sent back immediately ; where is it ? ' And the reply was, 
' In the Louvre.' " 

At last Austrians and French departed, and Italy shook 
off her mourning. The object of her desire was accom- 
plished. The stranger had gone ! 

Venetia held a plebiscite, and voted to implore Victor 
Emmanuel to be her king. One does not place much de- 
pendence upon plebiscites, but on this occasion there was no 
need to coerce votes, or to tamper with the ballot boxes. 
Out of six hundred and forty-two thousand votes cast, 
sixty-nine only were against offering Venetia to the King. 
The day when the result of this plebiscite was presented to 



264 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Victor Emmanuel, he exclaimed, " This is the greatest day 
of my life. Italy is made, though not yet completed." 

On November 7, 1866, Victor Emmanuel made his 
public entrance into Venice, hailed by the Bride of the Sea 
with all such displays of rejoicing as she had the means to 
make. A month later he congratulated his Parliament in 
Florence on representing twenty-five millions of Italians. 

The Iron Crown of Lombard) 7 , the crown of the Kings 
of Italy, which the Austrians had carried off in 1859, was 
brought back and restored to its old place in the Cathedral 
of Monza. But Victor Emmanuel never gave himself the 
empty triumph of placing it upon his brows. It was, how- 
ever, carried after his coffin at his funeral. 

Garibaldi retired to Caprera, where he passed some 
months in writing two books, — both autobiographical 
novels. One was "I Mille " (The Thousand), — the other 
"The Rule of the Monk." " I Mille " relates the exploits 
of his thousand brave Red Shirts in Sicily. " The Rule of 
the Monk " is a bitter invective against Roman priests, 
from the popes to the meanest friars. Hatred of priests 
had become with him monomania. The days were 
changed since his dearest friend was Ugo Bassi. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SADOWA. AUSTRO- HUNGARY. 

r ~T v HE history of the expulsion of Austria from Italy, and 
the triumph of Victor Emmanuel as King over 
twenty-five millions of Italians in 1866, though that 
triumph was not completed by the acquisition of Rome, 
can hardly be understood without reference to the battle of 
Sadowa, on which hinged the fate of Europe, which trans- 
ferred to Prussia the supremacy in Continental affairs that 
had for centuries been disputed between Austria and 
France. Yet, strange to say, general readers in this 
country know comparatively little about Sadowa, — less 
than they do about the fights of the great Frederick, far 
less than about the campaigns of Napoleon. The reasons 
for this are probably manifold. First, the extreme brevity 
of the Seven Weeks' War ; and secondly, that it took place 
when the interest of the American public was absorbed in 
other things ; our Civil War had just come to a close, our 
nation had to be reconstructed. I allow myself, therefore, 
to interrupt the tortuous course of modern Italian history, 
and to interpolate a few words concerning an event which 
served more to " make " Italy than the bravery of her own 
soldiers or the wisdom of diplomacy. 

In a few words I will here try to make clear the downfall 
of Austria as the arbiter of European affairs and leader of 
the German people, which was the outcome of the Seven 
Weeks' War. That war ended with the battle of Sadowa, 
July 3, 1866, and prepared the way for the moment when 
the crown imperial of Germany was, five years later, set on 



266 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the head of King William of Prussia in the Prefecture of 
Versailles. 

Nor are there many picturesque figures or incidents that 
stand out conspicuously in the Seven Weeks' War to en- 
liven the story. The history we really need to know is that 
of how the balance of power changed from Austria to Prussia 
in the latter half of the nineteenth century. 

To the eight provinces of which Prussia consisted in the 
spring of 1866, the Seven Weeks' War added Hesse-Cassel, 
Nassau, Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, and Lauenburg, thus 
raising her population to between twenty-three and twenty- 
four millions. In 1866 there had been for sixty years no 
Emperor of Germany, — the last one was Francis II., who, 
by the will of his future son-in-law, Napoleon, took the title 
of Emperor of Austria, and announced his resignation of 
that of Germany to the Diet at Frankfort, August 10, 1806. 
By this act the Empire of the Caesars in Central Europe, — 
old as the days of Augustus, the oldest political institution 
in the civilized world, — was extinguished by the power of 
Napoleon. Its partial restoration in our own day may be 
said to be indirectly due to the second Napoleon. 

Up to the early part of the present century, the German 
Empire consisted of no less than three hundred States, large 
and small, governed by secular or ecclesiastical princes, 
each independent of the other, but subject to the Emperor 
as their federal head ; besides which there were free cities, 
and a class of nobles, chiefly in Swabia and the vicinity of 
the Rhine, who, without enjoying the title of princes, ac- 
knowledged no superior but the Emperor. These were 
called freiherren, whose strong castles, together with the 
free cities, made up the sovereign States of Germany to 
three hundred and sixty. 

When Napoleon swept with his armies over Germany, he 
made short work of these tiny sovereign princes, dukes, 
landgraves, counts, pfalzgraves, freiherren, and barons. 
They became what are called " mediatized " princes, — 
received pensions in exchange for power, and descended, 
from being reigning sovereigns, into the rank of nobles. 




EMPEROR WILLIAM I. 



SADOWA. 267 

German geography must have been awful to learn in the 
days of those free cities and sovereign princes. Thanks to 
Napoleon, they were reduced to thirty-nine, and Prince 
Bismarck has since cut them down to twenty-six, for which 
he deserves the gratitude of all students of geography. 

In far-back times the Emperor of Germany was elected 
by nine electors, — the electors of Cologne, Treves, May- 
ence, the Palatinate, Hanover, Prussia (1. e., Brandenburg), 
Saxony, Bavaria, and Bohemia (1. e., Austria, whose only 
connection with the German Empire was through her pos- 
session of that subject kingdom). But after 1438 the 
imperial crown of Germany became hereditary among 
princes of the house of Hapsburg, rulers of Austria. 

As our federal representatives meet in Washington, so the 
German federal representatives met at Frankfort. The 
Diet was composed of three Chambers. The first was 
composed of the nine electors (or their representatives) ; 
the second of the various princes, and imperial prelates, 
counts, and barons ; the third consisted only of the repre- 
sentatives of the free imperial cities, — fifty at one time, and 
subsequently only six. 

Out of the thirty-nine countries composing Germany 
seventy years since, only five had as much population as 
the city of New York has to-day. 

Close beside Prussia, and guarding all the passages from 
the Baltic to the North Sea, lay the little kingdom of Den- 
mark, which contained the fine ports of Kiel and Altona, 
greatly desired by Prussia. Denmark is a kingdom largely 
made up of islands. Its foreign possessions are all islands ; 
its home territory is now all islands, except the peninsula of 
Jutland, which a narrow strip of country connects with the 
mainland. Up to 1864, Jutland stood, as it were, upon a 
pedestal, formed of two provinces called the Elbe duchies, 
— i.e., Holstein and Schleswig ; Denmark also, in 1815, 
by bargain with Prussia, acquired the Grand Duchy of 
Lauenburg in exchange for a piece of Pomerania, which 
she ceded to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Lauen- 
burg and Holstein were parts of the German Empire, having 



268 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

votes in the German Diet, — and thus Denmark had her 
share in the affairs of the German Empire. 

A diplomatic agreement, drawn up in London in 1852, 
had secured the throne of Denmark, together with the 
duchies of Holstein and Schleswig, to Prince Christian of 
Gliicksborg, on the death of the reigning king. It was 
stipulated that Schleswig should not be incorporated into 
the Danish kingdom, but should retain home rule, and live 
under its own Constitution. However, King Christian, as 
soon as he came to the throne, set this agreement aside. 
A certain Duke of Augustenburg conceived that, the diplo- 
matic arrangement having been broken, he was at liberty to 
claim the right to rule Schleswig and Holstein in virtue of a 
stronger hereditary claim than King Christian. He laid 
the matter before the German Diet, and the Diet was ready 
to support him. The duchies, it may be added, were in 
favor of his claim to be their ruler. 

The result of the dispute was that German federal troops 
were quartered in the duchies, and that a war took place 
there in 1864. Denmark had expected to receive help 
from England, but England did not support her, and, in 
despair, she gave over to the Diet Schleswig, Holstein, and 
Lauenburg, to be held in trust till the dispute should be 
adjusted. Austria was to quarter troops in Holstein, 
Prussia in Schleswig. 

Then began quarrels between the two Great Powers. 
Prussia governed Schleswig with a very high hand. Aus- 
tria's rule in Holstein was milder and more popular. 
Prussia accused Austria of advocating the claims of the 
Prince of Augustenburg, and stirring up popular opinion in 
Schleswig in his favor. This was in 1865. 

Prussia, which had become so great under the Great 
Frederick, came out of the wars of Napoleon a very small 
Great Power, — not that Prussia had become less, but that 
the four other Great Powers had risen to be more. The 
ruling spirit of the German people at this time was the 
Austrian Prince Metternich, whose conscience demanded 
of him to put down everything that tended to progress, as 



SADOWA. 269 

being dangerous and devilish, and whose mandates the King 
of Prussia, Frederick William III., accepted without remon- 
strance or misgiving. Frederick William was a good man, 
and a pious one, but entirely without force of character. 

In 1830 the French revolution which deposed Charles X. 
sent an electric shock through Europe. Brunswick opened 
the ball with a little local revolution, which unseated her 
duke and set up a new duke, who gave his people a Consti- 
tution. Hesse-Cassel, Hanover, and Saxony followed suit, 
though King Ernest, who mounted his throne in 1837, 
revoked the constitution of Hanover soon after assuming the 
crown. 

Prussia remained quiet, but it chafed her people to be 
obliged always to follow the lead of Austria, and a strong 
feeling grew up in Germany that Prussia's aspirations were 
for progress, Austria's for old-time obstructiveness and con- 
servatism. However, Prussia had the satisfaction of lead- 
ing the new Zollverein, a league which did away with 
custom-house duties between the little states and left Ger- 
many with only one line of federal custom-houses on her 
frontier. 

In 1840, Frederick William III. died, and more liberality, 
if less piety, was expected from Frederick William IV., his 
successor. This king was an accomplished gentleman, but 
no statesman, — timid, vacillating, never sure of his own 
mind, and unfitted for an emergency. So far from granting 
the desired Constitution, "No power on earth," he declared, 
" shall ever succeed in persuading me to change the 
natural relation between king and people into a conven- 
tional and constitutional one, — and never, never, will I 
yield to the demand that, between our Lord God in 
heaven and this country, a written paper shall interpose it- 
self to take the place of the old sacred ties of loyalty by 
which the people of Prussia are bound together." 

Frederick William IV., by his vagaries, nearly drove 
Prince Albert frantic, as we may see in his letters. It was 
he who was very unwilling to allow his heir to brave the 
dangers of London at the time of the Great Exhibition. 



270 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

In 1848 another French revolution occurred. This 
time its shock sent Prince Metternich into exile, and with 
astonishment the upper classes of the Viennese beheld a 
mob of students, followed by troops of ragged artisans, 
marching through the streets, shouting for " Liberty ! " In 
our brief notice of this insurrection in the chapter on Kos- 
suth, we have seen how this revolution was ended by the 
army of Prince Windischgratz and the gallows. 

Next, a self-constituted Diet met at Frankfort, and de- 
bated the formation of a new German Empire, with a new 
Liberal Constitution, and a new Emperor. The Emperor 
decided on was the King of Prussia, who had quieted a 
revolution in Berlin by the words " henceforth Prussia is 
merged into Germany." Yet he steadily refused to accept 
the Imperial crown ; and the whole project of a new Ger- 
man Empire fell to pieces. His subjects, however, managed 
to secure from him a modified form of Constitution. He 
died in 1861, after having been insane for some years, 
during which time the heir presumptive, his brother William, 
ruled as regent of his kingdom. King William was sixty- 
four years of age when he came to the throne. Above all 
things he was a soldier. He meant to build up Prussia, to 
make her the centre of German unity, and to that end he 
was resolved to organize a military system that should give 
her preponderance, not only in Germany, but among the 
other Great Powers. He was not a man of distinguished 
talent, but of wonderful sagacity and firmness. Some 
writer elaborately compared him to the Duke of Wellington, 
and, indeed, it was no desire for personal popularity or 
aggrandizement that actuated both of them to impress on 
other men their own opinions, but a genuine wish to do, in 
whatsoever circumstances they might be placed, what they 
deemed best for their country. 

King William was soon involved in a fierce dispute with 
his Parliament, which was not at all inclined to give way to 
his views concerning the organization of the Prussian army. 

" But at the very moment when the course of the political 
drama seemed most perplexed, a ' heaven-born minister ' ap- 



SADOIVA. 271 

peared upon the scene. This was Count von Bismarck, who, 
with a strong will and a firm hand, piloted his sovereign trium- 
phantly through the troubled seas of parliamentary conflict, 
and carried on the government of the country on the basis of 
forced grants, without asking Parliament for its annual vote of 
supplies." 

It was a high-handed measure, one that, two centuries 
and a half before, had cost a King of England his life ; but 
Charles I. had no Bismarck ; moreover, unlike King Wil- 
liam, he was not the man to subordinate his ideas of pre- 
rogative, when the right moment came, to the good of his 
country. 

Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck was born a few weeks 
before the battle of Waterloo. He had the clever mother 
usually attributed to great men, and she set her heart on his 
becoming a diplomatist, which in European countries is a 
profession. But, first of all, he started in life as a very 
naughty, troublesome boy. He was a noted duellist in his 
university career ; indeed he fought twenty-eight duels dur- 
ing the three years he spent at Gottingen. Till he was 
twenty-five, there was reason to think he might come to no 
good, but he then, like Count Cavour at the same age, re- 
tired to the country and devoted himself to the care of his 
father's estates and to husbandry. He had studied, how- 
ever. He had learned several languages, and had fitted 
himself for his future career by the great interest he took in 
history and political economy. 

In 185 1 he wrote thus to his wife : — 

" The day before yesterday I was at Wiesbaden, the scene of 
former follies in my early life. May it now please God to fill 
the vessel, — where the champagne at twenty-one uselessly 
frothed, leaving only empty dregs, —with His own clear and 
strengthening wine." 

He first entered public life as a member of a provincial 
diet, and made his first speech on the over-consumption of 
tallow in a poor-house. He soon, however, attracted atten- 
tion, was elected into a more prominent deliberative body 
as a strong Conservative, and became a favorite adviser of 



:-: ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Frederick William IV. On one occasion he made a speech 
to prove that there could be no German Confederation that 
excluded Austria. 

He was next appointed Prussia's representative in the 
Federal Bund, or, as we more usually call it, the Diet, at 
Frankfort. There he remained eight years, during which 
time he changed his views with regard to Austria. 

In every way Prussia was thwarted by Prince Schwarzen- 
burg, the Austrian representative, who used the numerical 
strength of the little States to outvote Prussia, and tried by 
every means to weaken her influence with the rest of 
Germany. 

It is said that one of the arrogant ways by which Austria 
tried to show her supremacy over other German States was 
that, in the sittings of the Military Commission, only the 
Austrian representative was accustomed to smoke. Bis- 
marck coolly brought out his cigar, and asked the astonished 
A : ::ian for a light. After this, the representatives of other 
States timidly asserted their right also to smoke. 

t; Only Wiirtemberg and Bavaria were left out." said Bis- 
marck, " because their representatives did not smoke. But the 
honor and dignity of their States required it. so the ne:s± time 
we met, Wiirtemberg produced a cigar. — I see it now : it was 
a long, thin, light yellow thing, — and he smoked at least half of 
it as a burnt-ofxering to the Fatherland." 

In 1859. Bismarck was sent as ambassador to St. Peters- 
burg, where he became a favorite ; but he had contracted 
ill-health during his eight years of hard work at Frankfort, 
— and his tendency to neuralgia and erysipelas has never 
since left him. 

In 1862 he went as ambassador to Paris. During his 
ambassadorship he joined the Emperor Napoleon III., at 
Biarritz, and, in quiet walks with him along the seashore, 
laid the foundation of that personal knowledge of his char- 
acter which served him so well in the struggle between 
Russia and Austria in 1866, and subsequently in the Franco- 
Prussian war. 



SADOWA. 273 

On his return from Biarritz, Bismarck was recalled to 
Prussia. There the new king, William, was in conflict with 
his parliament and needed a wise counsellor by his side. 
Bismarck was appointed at once Prime Minister and Minis- 
ter for Foreign Affairs, and was launched upon an angry sea 
of Prussian politics. 

The struggle on which he now entered ended only with 
Sadowa. What I have said thus far of Prussia, Denmark, 
Schleswig-Holstein, and Count von Bismarck is but intro- 
ductory to the subject of Sadowa. It was that victory over 
Austria that silenced opposition in Berlin, and justified the 
monarch and his minister in their desire to raise to a high 
pitch of efficiency the Prussian army. But the fight was 
hard. Bismarck in after years did not hesitate to say, when 
asked the question, " You wanted Schleswig and Holstein, 
did you not, from the beginning?" — "Yes, certainly I 
did, immediately after the King of Denmark's death. But 
it was a difficult job. Everybody was against me, — several 
coteries at Court, Austria, the petty German States, and the 
English, who grudged us the harbor of Kiel. Crowds of 
the Liberals were opposed to it, who all of a sudden dis- 
covered that the rights of princes were matters of impor- 
tance (in reality it was only envy and hatred of me), and 
even the Schleswig-Holsteiners themselves did not want it. 
I had to contend with all these difficulties and plenty 
besides." 

A great deal of diplomacy was necessary to prepare the 
way for war. Bismarck paid another visit to the Emperor 
of the French, and gathered, from conversations with him, 
that he was not likely to interfere in any contest between 
Prussia and Austria. Indeed, such a quarrel was to the 
advantage of the French Emperor. If Austria won, and he 
believed she would, unless attacked fiercely on the south by 
Italy, which might stir up Hungary on the east, the rising 
power of Prussia would be broken, and France might gain 
the Prussian Rhine provinces which she so much desired. 
It was therefore very much to be wished that Italy could be 
induced to take no part in the strife, and very improbable 

18 



274 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

that she would consent to remain neutral when such an op- 
portunity to fight Austria with advantage was opened to her. 
Austria had become willing to relinquish Venetia. She 
agreed to give it up to the Emperor Napoleon to do what 
he liked with it, provided he would guarantee that no part 
of her German possessions should in any event be alienated 
from her. Thus Austria's remaining hold on Italy would be 
lost, and Venetia might complete the kingdom of Italy ; the 
Emperor Napoleon would have redeemed his promises ; 
Italy would be " free from the Alps to the Adriatic," and he 
would be relieved from his early obligations as an Italian 
Carbonaro. 

But part of this scheme was defeated by a premature 
alliance, offensive and defensive, between Italy and Prussia. 
The King of Prussia had long shown himself friendly to 
Victor Emmanuel, and when Venetia was offered to Italy, 
on condition that she would keep out of the coming con- 
flict, Victor Emmanuel and La Marmora, his prime minis- 
ter, pleaded the necessity of keeping faith with Prussia, 
besides which they knew the feeling of the Italian people. 
Italia fara da se, was in every Italian heart. They did 
not wish to receive Venetia as a gift, — to complete the 
kingdom of Italy by diplomacy, — they wanted to triumph 
by arms over Austria : they wished that the last bit of 
Italian soil she owned should be wrenched from her by the 
hands of Italians. Their defeat a second time on the field 
of Custozza, close under the walls of one of the fortresses 
of the Quadrilateral, and the disastrous engagement which 
destroyed their navy at Lissa, were the outcome of this 
revolution. 

It is impossible not to sympathize with the disap- 
pointment of Italian patriots on this occasion, or with the 
spirit that prompted the feeling Italy herself will make her- 
self ; but patriotism needs to be guided by statesmanship, 
especially in a young nation, — a lesson Italy was slow to 
learn, an axiom never in favor with Garibaldi or Mazzini. 
"Young Italy ! " said d' Azeglio, " Lack of wisdom must be 
always pardoned in the young." 



SADOWA. 275 

Early in 1865 it became evident that the Diet at Frank- 
fort, under the leadership of Austria, was going to oppose the 
very singular claim which Prussia had set up to the Danish 
duchies. This claim was, that since the Prince of Augusten- 
burg had surrendered his rights in Schleswig temporarily to 
Prussia, Prussia succeeded to his rights when the disposition 
of the duchies should be arranged. 

Bismarck then proposed a reorganization of the German 
Confederacy. This was opposed by all the South German 
States, and by the North German States of Hanover, Sax- 
ony, and Electoral Hesse, which took part against Prussia. 
The brother of Prince Albert, Duke Ernest of Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha, was in Prussia's favor. Both Austria and Prussia, all 
through the spring of 1866, were making preparations to 
take the field against each other, and the armies of Italy 
were put on a war footing at the same time. But Austria 
had taken the initiative, and began some weeks before Prus- 
sia the work of mobilization. Mobilization means getting 
an army all ready to enter on a campaign, with its trans- 
port, artillery, supplies, ammunition, hospital train, and re- 
serves, prepared for action. Prussia has so complete a 
military organization that she can mobilize her army in less 
time than any other Power. 

In fourteen days the Prussian army was all ready to march 
at fourteen hours' notice. They carried no tents. Each 
soldier had a tin pan for cooking. Each regiment had only 
one waggon for its officers' baggage, two waggons with hos- 
pital supplies, and a few pack-horses. 

On June 14, 1866, Prussia sent word to Hanover, Hesse, 
and Saxony that she expected them to dismiss the armies 
they had been assembling in obedience to the Federal 
Diet, and in twelve hours give her an answer, whether or 
not they would submit to her demands. 

The sovereign of Hanover was King George, grandson of 
George III. of England. He was blind, good, musical, 
and dearly loved by his subjects. Saxony was governed by 
King John, a man of taste and culture, who made the best 
translation of Dante's " Divina Commedia " ever made into 



:-' ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

the German language : and Hesse was governed by the 
family into which Princess Alice of England had married. 

The three States so peremptorily summoned to take part 
with Prussia, or against her, in the coming war, replied that 
they would not reduce their armies, and did not propose 
to join the new North German Confederation. Twenty- 
four hours later Prussia declared war against them, and 
five days later Italy made her declaration of war against 
A stria. 

The army of Saxony had been mobilized, but that of 
Hanover was wholly unprepared. Every exertion was made 
by King George to get it into order, but Prussia attacked 
Hanover both by land and sea, and in less than one week 
after the declaration of war (i. e., on June 22, 1866) Prussia 
had taken possession of the whole of Hanover, except a 
small portion of territory round Gottingen, where the Han- 
overian army was assembled. Prussia had also secured 
possession of all depots of arms in Hanover, and all its other 
munitions of war. 

The Hanoverian army lay almost paralyzed. Its object 
now was to break out of Hanover and to unite if possible 
with the Bavarian troops, and those of Hesse-Cassel. To 
do so, it would have to pass through a small portion of 
Prussian territory, and then through a part of Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha. 

In vain the King of Hanover sent to the prince who com- 
manded the Bavarians, asking help to enable him to push 
his way through the enemy. No help was sent, and the 
King of Hanover, with his unprovided army, had to meet 
the emergency as best he might. On June 27, — twelve 
days after the declaration of war, a battle was fought at a 
place called Langensalza, where the Hanoverians distin- 
guished themselves by their loyalty and bravery, and they 
won the battle. But their triumph was not of long dura- 
tion. They were but nineteen thousand, wholly unprovided 
even with food, and in an enemy's country. A force of 
forty thousand Prussians was sent to hem them in, and two 
days afterwards, King George, seeing his situation was 



SADOWA. 277 

hopeless, and unwilling uselessly to sacrifice the lives of his 
brave soldiers, offered to accept terms of capitulation. 
Arms, carriages, and military stores were handed over to 
the Prussians ; the Hanoverian soldiers were dismissed to 
their homes ; the officers were allowed to retain their horses 
and their swords, on condition of not again serving against 
Prussia in the war. The King himself and the Crown 
Prince were permitted to depart whithersoever they pleased, 
except within the borders of Hanover. 

Thus, less than three weeks finished the war with Han- 
over, and gave Prussia that little kingdom, which for one 
hundred and thirty years had belonged to the crown of 
England, and had involved Great Britain in several European 
wars. It had a Salic law, and on the accession of Queen 
Victoria, in 1837, fell to her eldest uncle, Ernest, Duke of 
Cumberland. 

The deposed king lived as a private gentleman quietly 
in Paris. The conduct of Prussia was always harsh to him. 
He had been blind from early boyhood. He left one son, 
the present Duke of Cumberland (or King of Hanover), 
who made a love-match (opposed by Prussia) with Princess 
Thyrza of Denmark, sister to the Princess of Wales. The 
poor lady became subsequently insane. The daughter of 
King George married, with the approbation of Queen 
Victoria, as head of the house, a private gentleman, her 
beloved father's secretary. They reside in England. 

I have not been willing to interrupt the story of the war in 
Hanover by recounting that of the simultaneous and more 
important campaign in Saxony and Bohemia. The moment 
the declaration of war was made by Prussia on June 14, 1866, 
the Saxon army, already mobilized, began to evacuate Sax- 
ony, and fall back to join the Austrian army under Field- 
Marshal Benedek in Bohemia. They had first attempted 
to tear up the railroad which connected Prussia and Saxony, 
but the Prussians came upon them so rapidly that they 
could only do their work very imperfectly. In three days 
the Prussians had possession of Dresden, the capital of 
Saxony. It must be said, in justice to the discipline of the 



278 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Prussian army, that the order it maintained in Saxony was 
admirable, and that the proclamation of Prince Frederick 
Charles of Prussia to the Saxon people was carried out to 
the letter. It said : " Private property will be every- 
where respected by my troops, who are also directed to 
protect every peaceful citizen from injury." 

" In most of the villages and hamlets of Saxony, certainly on 
all those that lay on roads leading to the frontier, Prussian sol- 
diers were billeted ; cavalry and artillery horses filled the barns 
of the border farmers, and field guns and artillery carriages were 
parked on many a village green. But the Saxons had no com- 
plaints to make, and, as far as could be judged from appearances, 
seemed highly to approve the occupation of their country by the 
Prussian army. The Saxon peasantry and the soldiers were on 
the most friendly terms, and a stranger who did not know the 
Prussian uniform, in passing through the villages would have 
supposed that the troops were quartered among people of their 
own country. ... In some places the men were helping the 
peasantry to get in the hay harvest, in others they might be 
seen working in the cottage gardens, and nearly always they 
were spending money in the village shops ; the bare-legged 
country urchins got taken up for rides on the artillery horses, 
or were invited, half afraid, to peep into the muzzles of the rifled 
cannon. Passenger traffic was resumed upon the railroads, 
and telegraphic messages were regularly sent." 

The theatre of this War of Seven Weeks was the valley of 
the Elbe. The Elbe flows out of Bohemia, a land walled 
in with mountain ranges, into Saxony, and continues its 
progress northward through West Prussia. 

The Austrian army in Bohemia consisted of about three 
hundred and ten thousand men. The Prussian force was 
divided into three armies ; one under the command of the 
King ; one under the Crown Prince ; one under Prince 
Frederick Charles, — known as the Red Prince in the army. 
These three armies consisted of about two hundred and 
eighty thousand men, but they had about two hundred more 
guns than the Austrians. 

On June 2 2d, a week after the occupation of Dresden, 
the Prussians began to pour through the mountain passes 




PRINCE FREDERICK CHARLES. 



SADOWA. 279 

from Saxony into Bohemia. The day was very hot, and 
the dust of the roads was choking, but the men stepped out 
cheerily, proud of themselves, and with full confidence in 
their commanders. On the night of June 22 the division 
of Prince Frederick Charles was at the quiet little village of 
Zittau. 

" Its resources," says the war correspondent from whom I 
have been quoting, " were sorely tried by the sudden inroad of 
hungry men. The common room of the inn was filled with a 
multitude of soldiers hungry with the day's march. Each man 
brought a large piece of bread and a junk of meat, and, retiring 
to a side table or bench, cut it up with his pocket-knife and 
made a hearty meal. The regimental officers fared no better 
than the men. The campaign had shaken off many outward 
distinctions, though discipline was unimpaired." 

The next morning, June 23, Prince Frederick Charles 
stood on the border line between Saxony and the Austrian 
dominions, and saw all his soldiers pass by him on the 
march. A week from the day when the Prussians entered 
Saxony their helmets were over the border into Bohemia. 

The small successes of the next week were all with the 
Prussians. The divisions commanded respectively by the 
King and the Crown Prince followed Prince Frederick 
Charles rapidly, and on July 3, 1866, was fought the great 
battle called the Battle of Koniggratz by the Germans, but 
which w r e call Sadowa. Koniggratz was a great fortress 
near the battlefield, Sadowa a picturesque village with pine- 
log farmhouses that lay near. 

The attack was a surprise to the Austrians, who were 
lying around Koniggratz, on the bank of the Elbe. They 
had no idea that the Prussians were so close to them. 
Prince Frederick Charles was determined to attack on the 
morning of July 3, and sent an aide-de-camp to tell the 
Crown Prince his plan, and to beg him to bring up his 
army to his help in the course of the day. The fight- 
ing began at dawn and lasted till about 3 o'clock in the 
afternoon. The battle was very bravely contested. Field- 
Marshal Benedek was a skilful general, and his Austrians 



280 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

were tried troops, though they were less sturdy men than 
the Prussians. Backward and forward swayed the tug of 
war until midday. Prince Frederick Charles saw nothing of 
the Crown Prince, and for some hours believed that his 
advance had in some way been prevented. At last, to his 
astonishment, he perceived Prussians before him driving the 
Austrians towards the Elbe. The Crown Prince had taken 
the enemy on the flank, and after a hard contest the Aus- 
trians were almost surrounded. The Elbe was in the rear 
of the Austrian army, but Benedek had taken the precaution 
to throw several bridges over it, and across them the remains 
of his army made their retreat. Great numbers of Austrians 
were taken prisoners. Hundreds who had been wounded 
remained upon the field. It was remarked that the 
Austrian prisoners seemed dazed by their defeat, but 
Italians who were serving in Austrian regiments looked 
joyful. 

There is a certain interest in knowing how Count Bis- 
marck fared that day, for he was with the army. To him 
the importance of victory in that battle was immense. He 
had urged his King, almost against his own judgment into 
the war, and a lost battle would — to himself — have been 
ruin. He had said to a friend on starting for headquarters : 
" We shall conquer, or I shall fall with the last charge of 
cavalry." 

All day, during the fight, he sat on his big chestnut horse, 
and that night he had prepared to bivouac, like the com- 
batants, on the field, with his head on a carriage cushion, 
when the Duke of Mecklenburg sent him word that he had 
a bed to offer him. The bed proved to be a child's bed. 
The Count put a chair at the end to make it longer, but 
his position was so cramped that he suffered from it for 
days after. 

The next day an Austrian proposal for peace was received, 
but could not be entertained as Prussia had pledged herself 
to enter into no negotiations for peace without consulting 
Italy. 

In a few hours the victorious army (Prince Frederick 



SADOWA. 28 1 

Charles's division still in advance) was proceeding through 
Bohemia, the Austrians retreating as it came on. 

We are told that the royal family of Saxony, escaping 
from Dresden, reached Vienna by railway on the morning 
of the 4th of July. The station was brilliantly lighted, and 
decorated in their honor with flags and flowers. The 
Emperor of Austria met them with a face as white as his 
uniform, and told them of the terrible disaster of Sadowa 
the day before. 

Field-Marshal Benedek was adored by his army, but 
public clamor demanded his dismissal, after the lost battle, 
and he was superseded by the Archduke Albrecht, who had 
commanded in the Italian campaign and won the battle of 
Custozza. The imperial family determined to abandon 
Vienna, and to leave it open to the enemy, should he 
advance, instead of subjecting it to bombardment. They 
took refuge at Pruth. 

We have seen how the Prussians marched through 
Saxony ; here is a little picture of their march through 
Bohemia : — 

" The villages along the road had been mostly deserted, for 
the inhabitants had fled south with the retreating Austrian 
army. The houses looked desolate, with their doors and win- 
dows wide open, and shutters flapping in the wind. A stray 
dog or two, here and there, stood and barked at the soldiers as 
they marched past, but even these were rare. For twenty-five 
miles the army passed through a luxuriantly fertile country, but 
almost entirely deserted. Sometimes one or two peasants 
stood by the side of the road, staring vacantly at the passing 
troops, or a few women might be found in a village, who, half- 
frightened by the sight of the soldiers, supplied them with the 
drinking water they everywhere requested. The children did 
not seem so timid ; they were present along the roads in large 
numbers, for the cherries were just ripening, and they took ad- 
vantage of the panic among their elders to make a raid on the 
trees alongside the road. With them the soldiers soon became 
good friends. The boys ran alongside of their battalions with 
their caps full of fruit and got coppers for handfuls, exulting in 
the coins they collected in so unexpected a way. But, for the 
most part, the country in front of the army was still and silent. 



282 ITALY IN THE XIXETEENTH CENTURY. 

No church clocks sounded : the guardians had fled. No horses 
neighed ; they had been taken to carry away the inhabitants, or 
to drag the Austrian artillery. Broad belts of corn, trodden flat 
to the ground, showed the march of the retreating Austrians. 
The Prussian infantry tramped steadily, keeping to the road, 
while the cavalry spread in bending lines through the fields; 
and behind the combatants toiled long trains of waggons, carry- 
ing the stores of this long army. Even* column was headed by 
Uhlans, the black and white flags of whose lances waved with 
an almost funereal aspect above their smart caps and gay red or 
yellow facings.'' 

In eight days the army entered Bninn, the capital of 
Moravia, having marched, always in perfect order, thirty 
miles a day. When they came in sight of Briinn they 
stopped outside the city to brush their clothes, refold their 
blankets, and enter smartly and in good trim. 

At Briinn they halted, and Benedetti, the French am- 
bassador, had his first interview on the subject of peace 
with Bismarck in a chamber of the upper story of the town 
hall. 

The Emperor Napoleon was now desirous of stopping 
further warfare. The war had not turned out as he ex- 
pected. He was not likely to w r rest the Rhine provinces 
from the victorious Prussians. Their successes had added 
immensely to their strength and their prestige. He now 
saw how dangerous to France would be the powerful North 
German Confederation, under the supremacy of Prussia. It 
was too late to stay the march of events in Northern Ger- 
many, but he was desirous above all things to prevent 
further reverses to Austria. He believed he had put Italy 
out of the war by the sudden gift of Venetia, two days after 
her armies, which had fought for it, had been defeated at 
Custozza. He had pledged himself that the hereditary 
dominions of the Emperor Francis Joseph should not be 
torn from him, meaning by that, that he w r ould encourage 
no revolutionary rising in Hungary, and would oppose, by 
force of arms if necessary, Count Bismarck's scheme of 
annexing Bohemia to his Confederation. Victorious Prussia 
must be content with having annexed Hanover, Hesse, 



AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 283 

Anhalt, Nassau, Oldenburg, and the Danish duchies to her 
own dominions, and with having forced reluctant Saxony 
to join the North German Confederation. The German 
Empire would be reconstructed, consisting only of those 
States that joined with this confederacy, and in due 
time an Emperor of Germany would be elected, who, of 
course, would be the King of Prussia. These were the 
terms of peace. Its arbiter, the Emperor Napoleon, got 
only the prestige of dominating the diplomacy of Europe. 
He had hoped for much : he received nothing. But 
doubtless he consoled himself with visions of " a Berlin ! " 
in the near future, for all the world believed that France 
and North Germany were soon to be at war. 

The peace between Austria and Prussia is called the 
Peace of Prague. It was signed August 23, 1866, two 
months and eight days after the Prussian troops attacked 
Hanover. On the 20th and 21st of September grand 
preparations were made in Berlin to receive the troops 
home-coming from the war. All that evergreens and ban- 
ners and military bands could do to express popular 
delight was done, but the wildest cheering was for the 
King, the Crown Prince, and Prince Frederick Charles, who 
rode together. The King stopped a few moments to speak 
to the wounded, who, unable to march in the procession, 
were seated in a group in an open square, and then he rode 
out of the city to place himself at the head of his troops, 
with whom he entered the town. There, cheered all the 
way, they formed in one of the great squares, and King, 
generals, soldiers, and people, united their voices in the 
national hymn of praise to the God who giveth victory. 

We cannot here follow out the making of Germany. We 
turn rather to the making of Austro-Hungary, concerning 
which I should like here to say a few words. 

" It would be difficult to point to any country," says a writer 
in the "London Quarterly Review," "in the course of the 
world's history which, in the short space of four years after 
defeat and loss of territory, so completely cast away old tradi- 
tions and assumed a new political and social character, as 



284 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Austria, the old home of despotism, the last depository of the 
traditions of the Holy Roman Empire. Finally excluded from 
Italy and Germany, by the campaign of 1866, Austria cast aside 
her dreams of foreign domination, and set herself manfully to 
the task of making a nation out of the various conflicting 
nationalities over which she presides." 

In 1850 a deep gloom had settled over all the nations 
under Hapsburg sway. The policy of reaction had been 
carried to an extreme, and, for all who had set themselves 
against it, punishment was most severe. 

There never was a nation composed of more conflicting 
nationalities than Austria. Roughly, it might be divided 
into the States that formed part of the Reich, — the old 
German confederacy, — of the States that did not, and of 
the provinces of Italy. The States that formed part of 
Germany were x\ustria, Bohemia, and some minor towns 
and dukedoms. The non-German States were Hungary, — a 
separate kingdom, with her various dependencies, Croatia, 
Transylvania, and so on, — Austrian Poland, the Tyrol, 
Styria, and the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. The in- 
habitants of all these countries had different languages, 
were all of different races, and each race cordially 
detested the others. 

The new Emperor, Francis Joseph of Austria, having, in 
1849, put down rebellion in his Italian States, turned his 
attention, as we have seen, to stamping out rebellion in 
Hungary. The old Constitution of the kingdom, so dear to 
every Hungarian heart, he had never sworn to observe, as 
his predecessor had done. He declared that it had been 
forfeited by the adoption of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, in 1849 ; and the Austrian armies, as we have seen, 
under Haynau and Windischgratz, proceeded to take ven- 
geance on all who had promoted or favored the establish- 
ment of a republic. In Vienna, leading men concerned in 
the brief rising of 1848, lawyers, publishers, jurists, and 
wise men who had hoped to effect, not revolution, but 
reform, were shot by court-martial. In Italy the work of 
reconquest was completed leisurely by fusillades ; and on 




*Jr=*&^ j& * &Sqjj£ 



EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH. 



A US TR O-HUA 'GARY. 285 

the gallows erected at Arad, in Hungary, were strung up 
Magyar magnates, statesmen, and generals by the dozen. 
l>y drum-head law, men were condemned to be hung. 
Occasionally an imperial " pardon," as it was called, per- 
mitted them to be shot. For women there was the whip of 
Haynau. In Lord Palmerston's private correspondence we 
find a letter, speaking of the atrocities of the Austrian gov- 
ernment at this period in Hungary, styling its agents " the 
greatest brutes that ever called themselves by the undeserved 
name of civilized man." He adds : — 

" Their latest exploit of flogging forty-odd people, including 
two women, at Milan, some of the victims being gentlemen, is 
really too blackguardly and disgusting a proceeding. As to 
acting on their feelings of generosity and gentlemanliness, that 
is out of the question, because such feelings exist not in a set of 
officials who have been trained up in the school of Metternich, 
and better men can only blush in private for the disgrace such 
things bring upon their country ; but I do hope you will not 
fail to express openly and decidedly the disgust which such 
proceedings excite in the public mind of England." 

For several years Prince Schwarzenburg was governor of 
Hungary, and pursued this policy to the utmost. His rule 
failed so utterly that another man was put in his place. 
His rule was based on the methods of the Dark Ages. 
Then a system parliamentary in form, but without power, 
was tried, and failed like the others. 

The government, in despair, invoked advice and help 
from Francis Deak, a leading Hungarian. He repeatedly 
declined to give them aid, declaring that, so long as Hun- 
gary had no Constitution, he could do nothing. 

Deak was a Magyar, a year younger than Kossuth, and 
his course in the Hungarian parliament had been very much 
the same as that of Kossuth had been. Like Kossuth, he 
took a prominent part in the Diet in 1848; like him, he 
was a member of the Committee of Defence, or provisional 
government ; but he was a reformer, not a revolutionist. 
He respected old forms, and clung to old rights. Trial by 
jury, freedom of the press, and similar questions of justice 



286 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

and reform he firmly advocated ; but in matters affecting 
the political situation at large he was a strong Conservative. 
"I love progress," he used to say, — "not revolution." 

When race hatred and the power of Russia brought about 
the downfall of the Hungarian cause, Deak retired quietly 
into private life, and lived for ten years in obscurity. In 
i860 the Austrian government began to be utterly discour- 
aged by the failure of whatever policy it tried in Hungary, 
and then first wished to consult Deak, who refused to inter- 
fere. Nevertheless, some of his sayings became largely 
quoted in Vienna, and helped on the cause he had at heart, 
especially his remark that " the Austrian government had 
wrongly buttoned its political coat, and there was now no 
help for it but to unbutton and button over again." 

Kossuth had in 1858 great hopes of a new rising in Hun- 
gary. He had been summoned to Paris by Mazzini to 
meet Prince Napoleon, and the result was a secret inter- 
view with the Emperor. Some steps were taken, agents 
were sent into Hungary to corrupt Hungarians serving in 
the Austrian army, and a rising was planned to take place, 
which was abruptly put an end to by the Peace of Villa- 
franca. Kossuth was heart-broken, and retired to Turin. 

When the Prussians defeated the Austrians at Sadowa; 
when the peace of Prague was signed ; when Austria had 
renounced her supremacy in Germany, and had given to 
Louis Napoleon her province of Venetia as the price of 
his good offices, the Austrian empire might have been 
thought to be on the road to dissolution. Something, its 
rulers felt, had to be done. The statesmen of Austria at 
that period had the calm sense to see that the only way to 
restore Austria was to strengthen her by conciliating the 
various heterogeneous parts of her great empire. They re- 
solved to restore the Constitution of Hungary, — that is, 
not the old Constitution, but one that secured to Hungary 
freedom and self-government, while it bound her more 
closely to Austria. In short, in the new Austro-Hungarian 
empire and kingdom the two countries were to be like 
Siamese twins. Austria was to include all the German part 



A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 287 

of the empire, Hungary its own various Slavonic depend- 
encies. Over Austria Francis Joseph was emperor; over 
Hungary he was king. Each country has now its own 
parliament, and each has what is called its delegation. 
The delegations arrange all federal affairs, peace, war, 
military matters, and federal expenditure. But these ques- 
tions are discussed by each delegation in its own house. 
They must then be accepted by both delegations, and then go 
back to their respective parliaments for final decision. If 
no decision on matters of common interest can be thus 
reached, the Emperor- King decides the matter. 

The result of this arrangement is that, as Hungary con- 
tains exceptionally fine men, and the Magyar race has been 
long accustomed to self-government, Hungary, in all federal 
matters generally takes the lead from Austria, though the 
two nations seem to dwell together on the most friendly 
terms. 

This arrangement has been in force more than twenty- 
five years. Under it the Emperor Francis Joseph was 
crowned with the crown of St. Stephen, which for a quarter 
of a century had disappeared. All efforts to induce Kos- 
suth to reveal its whereabouts were unavailing, but some one 
else surrendered the secret, and it was dug up in a forest 
under a mighty tree. With the crown, Francis Joseph took 
the coronation oath to observe the Constitution. 

Deak, whose advice and assistance brought about all this 
good for his country, died ten years after this Constitution 
was established. His body lay in state at Pesth with every 
demonstration, not only of a nation's sorrow, but with a 
laurel wreath sent by the hand of the Empress Elizabeth, 
that beautiful and eccentric imperial huntress, who dearly 
loved and honored him. 

Deak lived during the last ten years of his life, while 
compatriots and strangers pined to do him honor, in the 
simplest manner possible, at Breda. He had given up his 
estates to his next heirs for a small annuity. He was a 
bachelor and had rooms in a hotel, — the " Queen of 
England." He was a small, thick-set man, looking far more 



288 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

like a German than a Magyar. He was called the Father 
of the restored Constitution of Hungary, in public speeches, 
but in private life people loved to speak of him by endear- 
ing names. Der alte Mann was their favorite epithet. 
The Queen-Empress Elizabeth, who had a country seat near 
Pesth, called him " Uncle Deak." 

"His modesty, his retiring disposition,'' says Karl Blind, 
•■ never forsook him. Having nothing about his personality 
that could be called impressive, he might, in his sombrero hat 
and his Neapolitan cloak, have passed unobserved in a crowd ; 
but a nation's admiring looks followed his steps in spite of his 
occasional strong protests against every ovation. Repeatedly 
the Court confidentially approached him to know what he would 
accept that it was in the power of the sovereign to bestow on 
him. His answer was uniformly: ' I am not in want of any- 
thing.' At last Francis Joseph, on the advice of one of his 
ministers, sent him a Royal Family portrait, in a frame of gold, 
set with costly gems. ' It would look like a present in money,' 
said Deak. ' I cannot accept that.' Taking the picture out of 
its setting, he sent back the frame, with his thanks and compli- 
ments. All decorations he also refused to accept, much to the 
annoyance and discomfiture of the King-Emperor. Deak's 
constant resolve was to remain independent. No calumny 
could touch so disinterested a man." 



Alas ! — the pity of it. While Deak was thus honored, 
Kossuth lived in exile, wounded to the quick by what he 
deemed the ingratitude of his countrymen. He had 
imbibed the ideas of Mazzini. He was no friend to con- 
stitutional reforms, or to constitutional government. He 
endeavored to defeat the plans of Deak in 1868, and the 
followers and admirers of Deak found it hard to pardon 
him. Nevertheless, he could have returned from exile (as 
his son, since his father's death, has done) by going through 
a simple acknowledgment of the de facto government of 
Austro- Hungary. He died in 1894, aged 92, with his 
faculties still unimpaired. His body was brought back to 
Hungary with every demonstration of affection and respect. 
He is buried in the land he loved. 



A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 2 89 

" To-day, " says Karl Blind, writing of Francis Deak, " Hun- 
gary has once more her old landmarks, and her time-honored 
ground law, modified by the reforms of 1848. Her ruler — 
placed under an especial coronation oath — is recognized only as 
her king. The name of Hungary figures in all State documents 
on equal terms with that of Austria. The Honveds, who had 
fought against the Kaiser, are acknowledged as having merited 
well of their fatherland. The rank of general was given back 
to Klapka and two other generals, once foremost amongst the 
military chiefs of the revolution. Men who once narrowly 
escaped the gallows have been placed in the highest positions. 
Andrassy, Austro-Hungary's leading statesman, belongs to that 
class, — in short the restoration of self-government was as com- 
plete as, under existing circumstances, was possible." 

As I write, in 1896, the great fete is going on in Hun- 
gary which is to last a year and celebrate the thousandth 
anniversary of the formation of the kingdom of Hungary 
under its beloved, time-honored Constitution. The King- 
Emperor joins with his Hungarian subjects in their national 
rejoicings. He is present at the unveiling of statues to 
men who once refused him their allegiance, and takes a 
foremost part in the rejoicings of a people who have long 
learned to love and honor him. 

Alas ! that two men who would have made such worthy 
successors to the present Emperor have been cut off by 
violent and premature death, — the Crown Prince Rudolph, 
who, in spite of his lax morality, would have made a liberal 
and noble sovereign, and Maximilian, who would have been 
the next heir. Maximilian had the good word of all who 
knew him, save those who shot him in cold blood at 
Queretaro. 



19 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MENTANA. 

'""PHE year 1867 opened with rejoicings. On the 7th of 
■*■ November, 1866, Victor Emmanuel had made his 
triumphant entry into Venice, and the day on which Vene- 
tia had been offered to him he had declared to be " the 
happiest day of his life." But that happiness was soon at 
an end ; no year of his troubled reign proved so unhappy 
as the year 1867, as he said subsequently with a sigh. 
"You are at least more fortunate than I," he wrote to a 
minister who had resigned his office, " you can send in 
your resignation." 

The French Army quitted Rome, in accordance with the 
convention of 1864, en the 4th of December, 1866. The 
Pope and his advisers did not seem much discomposed by 
its departure. Pio Nono had been raising a Roman legion. 
In addition to his Swiss Guard and Garda Nobile, he had 
his Papal Zouaves. Men of all nations and languages, Irish 
and French predominating, enlisted in his sen-ice, — for- 
eigners who knew the Holy Father only as their spiritual 
head, not as their temporal ruler. The population of 
Rome, and of the restricted papal territory that surrounded 
it, was six hundred thousand. The Pope's army amounted 
to twenty thousand, and the priests who had hastened into 
the city as a refuge, were computed at twenty thousand, 
while a monsignor high in office confessed to a Spanish 
traveller that it was believed that seventy thousand men 
belonging to revolutionary societies were in the city. The 
Convention of 1864 bound Victor Emmanuel, when the 
French garrison should be removed, to protect the papal 



MENTANA. 29 1 

frontier from invasion. "This would take two hundred 
thousand men," La Marmora said at the time, disapproving 
the Convention. 

Garibaldi, mortified and furious at the way in which 
Italian unity had been achieved, not by arms but by diplo- 
macy, made up his mind that the moment was propitious 
for another attack on Rome. His life was now drawing, as 
he thought, to a close, and its object was unaccomplished. 
Even more than the expulsion of the Austrians, he desired 
the annihilation of the Pope's temporal power. Unlike 
Victor Emmanuel, who was a Catholic and a Christian, 
Garibaldi was a rabid opponent of all priests, and had no 
sympathy with religious feeling. 

" However we may admire the expediency of trying to make 
Rome the capital of Italy," says Mr. Theodore Bent, " we can- 
not forget that Garibaldi, in pursuing his desire, set at defiance 
the authority of his country and his king; disregarded the will of 
a parliament elected by well-nigh universal suffrage ; and urged 
Italy to break her pledge with France, by which she had agreed 
to leave the Pope in possession of Rome, if France withdrew 
her troops as the convention of September, 1864, required. 
Hence France was at liberty, in accordance with a clause in 
that convention, to return to Rome, and to protect the hier- 
archy if attacked by Garibaldi." 

Many Italians of the moderate and constitutional party 
considered the departure of the French as the first stepping- 
stone to the acquisition of Rome. At the time the conven- 
tion was under discussion in 1864, Monsieur Drouyn de 
Lhuys, the French prime minister, who was engaged in the 
negotiation, so spoke of it : — 

"A revolution, however, so great, naturally required time 
before it could be brought about; and Italy had gone through 
so many revolutions during the last twenty years, that anything 
rapid might be detrimental to her welfare ; she wanted rest, and 
common-sense; neither of which Garibaldi would allow her to 
have. He was determined to precipitate matters in the face of 
every far-seeing statesman, long before affairs were ripe, con- 
fusing thereby all their manoeuvres by cutting across their most 
skilfully arranged preparations." 



292 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Mazzini wholly disapproved of Garibaldi's plans. His 
scheme was a republic ; the overthrow of Victor Emman- 
uel's government ; the retention of the Pope in Rome, with 
a sort of nominal supremacy over Italian affairs, though with 
no power. He was even, possibly, afraid of Garibaldi's 
extreme hatred to priests, proclaimed in an address he 
made from a balcony to an excited crowd : " We must go 
to Rome to clear out that den of vipers, to make soapsuds, 
and scour out and wipe off that black stain ; for without all 
this cleansing our nation will never be itself, and if this 
Italy does not occupy the place it ought, it is on account of 
that black race of priests, a worse plague than the cholera." 

There were fierce disputes in Rome itself between the 
two sections of the revolutionary party. Arms were stored 
for use when the time for action should arrive, nor were 
there wanting dynamite and Orsini bombs. 

Meantime, during the first months of the year, there was 
anything but harmony in the Italian government. Prime 
ministers were several times changed, and Parliament twice 
passed a vote of " No confidence " in the Ministry. The 
financial condition of the country was in an alarming state. 
Taxes were six times as heavy as they had been in former 
years, yet in the treasury there was a deficit of forty mil- 
lion dollars, and no visible means of supplying it, unless, 
indeed, by the suppression of convents, and the confiscation 
of much of their property. 

Garibaldi, during these early months of 1867, was making 
an electioneering tour through Central Italy, — an election- 
eering tour he called it, but it was in reality a tour to call 
up and enlist volunteers for his projected expedition. The 
Pope quietly regarded these preparations, believing firmly 
that a miracle would be worked to save his temporal throne. 
In France, though the French garrison was removed from 
Rome, the Emperor encouraged the enlistment of French- 
men in the Papal Zouaves, and the fine body of troops 
in the Papal army called the Antibes Legion was composed 
almost entirely of French soldiers, allowed to volunteer from 
the regular army. 



ME NT AN A. 293 

On the other hand, volunteers for the Garibaldian army 
began to collect from all sides as Garibaldi approached the 
Roman frontier. Never had Italy more needed the strong 
hand of her great statesman Cavour. Ricasoli, having no 
majority in Parliament, had been forced to resign. Rattazzi, 
who was more of a shifty politician, took his place. Ap- 
parently he was giving to the great agitator a free hand. 
Garibaldi had taken on himself the title of General of the 
Roman Republic, and assumed to have legal authority in 
virtue of the decree of the Roman Constituent Assembly, 
which in its dying moments had made him Dictator. While 
he believed himself in full career, however, he was suddenly 
arrested at Sinalunga, and carried off, half-dressed, and with 
no hat upon his head. 

He was taken to Alessandria, but contrived on his way to 
scribble a few lines in pencil, by way of proclamation, to his 
followers : " The people of Rome have the right of slaves, 
— to rise against their tyrants. The Italians have the right 
to assist them, if even fifty Garibaldis were in prison ; so, 
avanti, Italiani, avanti J ' " 

The Minister of Marine hastened to Alessandria to make 
terms for Garibaldi's peaceful retirement to Caprera. He 
was told not to consider himself a prisoner; but the gov- 
ernment stationed four steamers and a frigate off the island 
of Caprera, to make it impossible he should escape. 

Meantime, volunteers continued to assemble. The min- 
istry was forced to resign under the pressure of a storm of 
unpopularity consequent on Garibaldi's arrest ; and one or 
two important events took place during his enforced retire- 
ment. One was a little rebellion in Sicily, engaged in by 
the bands of brigands who still infested the mountains and 
were stirred into action by the intrigues of Francis, their 
ex-king. They threatened Palermo, in which there was a 
very small garrison, but the courage, skill, and firmness of 
General Cadorna, and of the Marquis di Rudini, then in 
command there, put the rising down. Another event was 
the blowing up of the barracks of the Serristori in Rome, 
by which fifty of the Papal Zouaves perished. All my 



294 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

readers will remember the account of this in Mr. Crawford's 
" Sant' Ilario." 

Victor Emmanuel issued a proclamation on October 27, 
1867: — 

" Italians ! Bands of volunteers, excited and seduced by the 
work of a faction, without authority from me or my government, 
have violated the frontier of the State. The respect due equally 
by all citizens to the laws and international conditions sanctioned 
by the parliament and by me establishes on me in these grave 
circumstances an inexorable obligation of honor. Europe knows 
that the banner raised in the neighboring lands on which was 
written the destruction of the supreme spiritual authority of the 
head of the Catholic religion, is not mine. This attempt places 
the common country in great peril, and imposes on me the im- 
perious duty of saving the honor of the nation, by not allowing 
to be confounded in one two causes absolutely distinct, two 
objects totally different. Italy must be secured against the dan- 
gers that may come. Europe must be convinced that Italy, 
faithful to her engagements, does not wish to be, and will not 
be, a disturber of the public order. ... I am the depository of 
the right of declaring peace or war for the nation, and I cannot 
tolerate the usurpation of it. I trust, therefore, that the voice 
of reason will be listened to, and that the Italian citizens who 
are violating that right will quickly place themselves in the ranks 
of our troops. . . . When the excitement has calmed down, and 
public order is fully re-established, then my government, in 
agreement with that of France, and in accordance with the vote 
of parliament, will try sincerely, by every loyal effort, to find a 
solution which will put a termination to the grave and important 
question of the Romans. Italians ! I have, and always will, put 
confidence in your good sense, as you have done in the affec- 
tion of your King for this great country, which, thanks to our 
common sacrifices, we have at last placed upon the roll of 
nations, and which we ought to transmit to our sons honored 
and entire. 

"Victor Emmanuel. 

" Florence, October 27, 1867." 

Victor Emmanuel found the Emperor Napoleon as hard 
to deal with as Garibaldi, and the clerical party in France as 
unmanageable as the revolutionary party in Rome. He was 
very desirous to prevent the return of the French garrison, 



MENTANA. 295 

and made the most earnest representations to the Emperor, 
assuring him that the ruin of Italy would be the ruin of France. 
But the Emperor showed even more than his usual vacilla- 
tion on the occasion. He was tired of interference in Italy. 
He was ill. He was perplexed by changes which he was 
pondering in his own system of government. He was 
haunted by the ghost of Maximilian. And since the death 
of de Morny he had had no confidential adviser. There 
was indeed a power behind his throne, the Empress 
Eugenie, who was in her turn under the influence of the 
clerical party, and the clerical party had long before formu- 
lated the relations it desired to establish with the Emperor : 
" Do you keep the Pope on his throne, and we will keep 
you on yours." 

From October 19 to October 26, Napoleon again and 
again ordered and countermanded the departure from 
Toulon of the transports that were to carry back a French 
army to Civita Vecchia. 

There is a story, which is hardly probable, though told by 
General Menabrea in his posthumous memoirs, that the 
Emperor went so far as to threaten to pour a large army 
into Italy and break up Italian unity, since Victor Em- 
manuel did not seem able to restrain his rebellious subjects 
from violating faith with foreign lands. 

This threat, it is said by Menabrea, had its effect on the 
prime minister, Ricasoli, and led to Garibaldi's arrest at 
Sinalunga ; but the volunteers continued to gather, and on 
October 14, 1867, their chief made a daring escape on a 
dark night, alone in a fishing skiff, from Caprera. He 
reached the neighboring island of Maddalena, thence 
passed over to Sardinia, and thence sailed for the Tuscan 
coast in a boat managed only by himself and his son-in- 
law Canzio. The sea was rough, the wind unfavorable, it 
took them many hours to make land ; then they ran the boat 
ashore among some reeds, and wandered some hours in the 
dark in a trackless swamp. " Of all the risky and danger- 
ous enterprises that I have undertaken in my life," said 
Garibaldi afterwards, " the most arduous, the most beauti- 



296 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

fill, and thatof which I am most proud, is my escape from 
Caprera." 

He went openly to Florence ; he harangued a crowd of 
people in a public square, and no man arrested him, for 
the Rattazzi ministry had resigned. Menabrea, who suc- 
ceeded Rattazzi, had not yet been appointed, and there was 
no one to give the order. The general took the train for 
Turin, and entered the Papal States on the same day that 
the first instalment of the French troops reached Civita 
Vecchia. 

The volunteers were numerous, but for the most part 
were mere boys. They were undisciplined, ununiformed, 
and ill-armed. Their officers could only be distinguished 
by each carrying a green bough in his hand. 

The point that Garibaldi desired to reach was a town 
and fortress situated on a hill commanding a magnificent 
view over the valley of the Tiber. It was called Monte 
Rotondo. 

Garibaldi with his men attacked the place, the volunteers 
fighting with great bravery. The besieged had cannon, the 
besiegers none. They fought till nearly midnight, when, 
the gate of the little city being destroyed by fire, the Gari- 
baldians poured into the town, and the next day Garibaldi 
found himself comfortably lodged in Prince Piombino's 
beautiful palace, looking down on his beloved Rome. His 
men committed many sacrilegious acts in the cathedral, 
and drew down on themselves the indignation of the in- 
habitants of the little city. Garibaldi had seven of the 
worst marauders shot, but this did not allay public feeling. 

There had been a gallant attempt made to supply the 
revolutionists in Rome with arms, by bringing them in boats 
up the Tiber. Enrico and Giovanni Cairoli undertook this 
enterprise. They had almost succeeded when their party 
was attacked and cut to pieces. A body of papal troops 
had come out to attack the Garibaldians, but, finding 
Monte Rotondo taken, they retreated, burning all the 
bridges (except one at Mentana) by which the invading 
force could approach Rome. To Mentana Garibaldi 



MENTANA. 297 

advanced, three days after he had taken Monte Rotondo. 
There he halted, only four miles and a half from Rome. 
This halt was incomprehensible to many persons. They 
did not know that the papal commandant at the Castle of 
St. Angelo, was ready to deliver up that fortress for twenty 
thousand dollars. That sum (four thousand pounds) had 
been raised by some English friends of Garibaldi, and the 
transaction was about to be completed, when the first de- 
tachment of French troops arrived in Rome. The French 
government had in its service, as a spy, a man trusted by 
Garibaldi, placed by him in charge of his camp post-office, 
and intrusted with his cipher. This man had occupied 
the same position with Garibaldi in the Tyrol ; had fought 
by his side bravely, and the chief would listen to no sus- 
picions concerning him. It was not until the secrets of the 
Paris Prefecture of Police fell into the hands of French 
republicans in 187 1 that it was discovered that for four years 
this man had been in receipt of a thousand francs a month 
for secret services to the imperial government. 

Due notice of the projected treachery of the governor of 
the Castle of St. Angelo having been thus furnished to the 
French, the governor was removed at once, and the garri- 
son in the fortress was changed. 

On the failure of his plan, Garibaldi resolved to retreat 
to Monte Rotondo, a retrograde movement which caused 
the desertion of a large number of his followers. His army 
was one that could be held together only by success. It is 
probable that with all troops belonging to the Latin races, 
success is essential to preserve steadiness and constancy. 

At Monte Rotondo, Garibaldi issued an address to his 
army, informing them that the government of Victor Em- 
manuel had just sent troops over the frontier. 

" If these troops come to join us in the design of taking Rome," 
he said, " they are to be looked upon as friends ; but if they come 
to sustain tyranny, and to enforce the base convention of 
September, 1864, then I will let all the world know that I alone, 
a Roman general with full power, elected by the universal suf- 
frage of the only legal government in Rome, — the Republic, — 



298 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

have a right to maintain myself armed in this, the territory 
under my jurisdiction!" 

But with an Italian army behind him, a Papal army con- 
fronting him, and a French army disembarking at Civita 
Vecchia, — with his own men disaffected and dispirited, 
with his prestige impaired, and with no unanimity among 
the revolutionary party within the walls of Rome, Gari- 
baldi felt that he must not stay long at Monte Rotondo, 
but must hasten to act, if anything was to be done. 
With a force of four thousand seven hundred infantry, one 
squadron of cavalry, and only four guns of small calibre, to 
assault the walls of a great city, he moved forward a little 
before midday on the 3d of November. The troops were 
to have started before dawn, but they were delayed by the 
advice of Menotti Garibaldi, who suggested that, as many 
of them marched barefoot, and a consignment of shoes had 
just arrived at headquarters, the advance had better be 
delayed till all were shod. 

This mistake was fatal. The battle began near the ham- 
let of Mentana, a little village with a single street, nestled 
in a valley. 

" This village in the Roman Campagna," says the Countess 
Cesaresco, " sprang into history on a November day one thou- 
sand and sixty-seven years before, as the meeting-place of 
Charlemagne and Leo III. Here they shook hands over their 
bargain, — that the Pope should crown the great Charles Em- 
peror and that the Emperor should secure to the Pope his tem- 
poral power. And now a ragged band of Italian youths was 
come to say that of bargains between popes and emperors 
there had been enough." 

The fortunes of the battle at first varied. At the first 
onset the volunteers fell back in confusion. Then they 
rallied and with the bayonet retook the principal positions 
they had lost. About two o'clock, the enemy's fire slack- 
ened ; something was evidently taking place in the papal 
ranks. An unfamiliar whirring sound soon told that the 
French with their new chassepots had come up. 



MEN TANA. 299 

A hailstorm of bullets decimated the Garibaldians. 
The cannon they had captured at Monte Rotondo were 
useless. They had exhausted their ammunition. They 
fought on till four o'clock, and then retreated. The chasse- 
pots, as the French general reported, "had done wonders." 

Next day the Garibaldians were in retreat. The castle 
of Mentana, in which they had left some men, capitulated, 
and eight hundred ragged prisoners were taken in triumph 
into Rome. 

" It would have been wiser to let them go. The Romans had 
been told that the Garibaldians were cut-throats, incendiaries, 
human bloodhounds, waiting to fly at them. They saw a host 
of boys, with pale, wistful, very youthful faces. If anything 
was wanting to seal the fate of the temporal power it was the 
sight of that procession of famished and wounded Italians 
brought to Rome by the foreigner." 

Garibaldi, haggard and aged by this reverse, led the rem- 
nant of his volunteers over the frontier. His hat was 
pulled down over his eyes. " It is the first time they make 
me turn my back like this," he murmured. "... It would 
have been better. . . ." 

He was preparing to go back to Caprera when he was 
arrested. It was the Italian government's response to an 
angry and insolent letter from the French Emperor, re- 
proaching Victor Emmanuel, and telling him he did not 
know how to govern. 

To govern ! Were ever tasks so hard thrown upon a 
sovereign at one time? To fuse into one nation twenty- 
five millions of people, separated for centuries by race 
hatreds from each other ; to give them equal laws ; to raise 
money for the expense of wars, revolutions, and good gov- 
ernment ; with ex-rulers, and a French Emperor of vacil- 
lating views to be dealt with ; with Rome a thorn in the 
side of Italy, with the head of the Catholic Church and his 
most ardent adherents conscientiously opposed to him ; 
with a new Constitution to make " march," and all the 
complications arising out of relations to France and the 
Roman question? 



300 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Garibaldi retired to Caprera after a brief imprisonment 
at Varignano. As far as Italy and Rome were concerned, 
the star of the old hero had set forever. 

Victor Emmanuel was made furious by the battle of 
Mentana. He had pledged himself that if the Garibaldians 
were repulsed by the papal troops, his soldiers should dis- 
arm them. He had never expected that the French, in 
alliance with the clerical party, would mow down his 
subjects, — even his rebellious subjects, — with chassepots. 
He said plainly to the Emperor, "The late events have 
suffocated every remembrance of gratitude due to you in 
the heart of Italy. It is no longer in the power of the 
government to maintain the alliance with France. The 
chassepot gun at Mentana has given it a mortal blow." 

Sorely tried as Victor Emmanuel had been during this 
year, some events in his own family had given him pleasure. 
His second son, Prince Amadeo, Duke d'Aosta, wounded 
at Custozza, had been married in May to Princess Maria 
Vittoria, daughter of a prince of ancient family, though not 
of royal descent. This marriage was very acceptable to the 
Italian people, and in due time a little son was born, named 
Filiberto Emmanuele. 

The Crown Prince Humbert remained unmarried until 
April, 1868. The bride intended for him was an Austrian 
archduchess, who met with a shocking and accidental 
death. 

But as time went on, it became necessary for the future of 
Italy that he should give to his country a direct heir to the 
crown. There was a charming princess living with her 
mother in Turin, a princess of the house of Savoy, daughter 
of the Duke of Genoa, Ferdinand Alberto Amadeo, King 
Victor Emmanuel's beloved brother, who, dying in 1855, 
had left two children, a daughter and a son. To Margherita 
might be applied Wordsworth's lines : — 

" None saw her but to love her, 
None knew her but to praise." 

In 1868 some preliminary steps had been taken to se- 
cure the hand of this pearl of Italy for the Prince of Rou- 




PRINCESS MARGHERITA. 

{Afterwards Queen of Italy.} 



MENTANA. 3OI 

mania, who subsequently married a hardly less charming 
princess, Elizabeth of Wied. 

The marriage of the cousins was celebrated at Turin. 
Prince Napoleon and Princess Clotilde came from Paris, 
Queen Pia came from Portugal, and the Crown Prince 
Frederick of Prussia was present. He loved Italy, and had 
formed a strong personal attachment for Victor Emmanuel. 
At the beginning of the year 1869, the present heir to the 
throne of Italy was born, Victor Emmanuel, now Prince of 
Naples. But he came into the world while all Italy was 
agitated by dread of a great calamity. His grandfather, 
King Victor Emmanuel, lay sick of a malignant fever, in a 
country seat near Pisa. He had twice before suffered from 
a similar attack, and his physicians believed that he could 
not resist a third one. He thought himself dying, and sent 
for the parish priest to give him the last sacraments. It is 
said that the priest used every argument, and even threats, 
to induce the King to restore Church property. Be this as 
it may, he could extract no promise from his penitent on 
matters relating to politics, but when he spoke of his 
personal sins, and, above all, of his liaison with Rosina, 
Countess of Mirafiore, who had been his mistress many 
years, and by whom he had children, Victor offered no 
opposition to his demand that he should marry her. The 
lady was in the house ; she was called to the side of the 
sickbed, and the religious ceremony was performed, though 
it was never, I think, followed by a civil marriage. 

Absolution was given the King, — and, in the absence 
for a few moments of other attendants, his valet adminis- 
tered to him a glass of port wine. The stimulant, aiding a 
salutary revulsion of feeling, had an immediate effect ; the 
King rallied at once, though for some time he remained too 
weak to take part in politics, and ministerial crises continued 
to go on. 

Victor Emmanuel always took pleasure in travelling about 
his dominions. He did so without the pomp of a royal 
progress. He liked, too, to receive visitors. Several 
members of the imperial family of Russia came to see 



302 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

him; and also some distinguished Austrians. "Your 
sovereign is a true king," said one of them to General 
Menabrea, the prime minister. 

The Empress Eugenie, when, at the close of 1869, she 
made her triumphal journey to Egypt, touched at Venice, 
where Victor Emmanuel and his ministers courteously 
greeted her; and Count Beust, the Austrian prime minis- 
ter, on his way back from the festivities at the opening of 
the Suez Canal, called, by his master's wish, to pay his 
respects to the King of Italy. The heart of Victor Em- 
manuel rejoiced over the friendly advances made to him 
by the Austrian Emperor, and the renewal of family 
ties. 

The Spaniards, who had found great difficulty in obtain- 
ing a king after the flight of Queen Isabella in 1868, offered 
the precarious honor to Prince Amadeo. Amadeo did his 
duty nobly by his Spanish subjects. No one has ever found 
a flaw in his career or in his character; but the crown 
proved a very uneasy one. His young wife's health failed 
under the burthen of royalty ; he became convinced that no 
sovereign but a Spaniard could hope to rule Spain satisfac- 
torily; and in February, 1873, he abdicated, taking back 
with him to Italy the love and admiration of even the most 
disaffected of his subjects. 

When war became imminent between Prussia and France, 
there were proposals for a triple alliance between France, 
Austria, and Italy. But Italy could not forgive the chasse- 
pots of Mentana, and Victor Emmanuel's ministers dreaded 
that the fortunes of war would impair Italian unity. Be- 
sides, Napoleon would not consent to withdraw his troops 
from Rome as the price of Italy's realliance with France. 
Nevertheless, when disaster after disaster fell on the French 
Emperor, the generosity of the Savoyard's heart would have 
induced him to hasten to the relief of the man who had 
once befriended him. But the Italian ministry would not 
consent, and events marched too rapidly to give time to 
overcome their opposition. 

There was one man, however, in Italy, who, as soon as 



MENTANA. 303 

France was declared a Republic, hastened to aid her. 
Garibaldi was now much broken in health, and much 
changed in disposition. What Scripture calls " the gall of 
bitterness " seems to have been infused into his soul. 
Much of what he wrote during the last years of his life is 
mere raving. 

A few days after he had openly declared himself in favor 
of establishing a European Areopagus which should keep 
the world in peace, he set off to offer his sword to the 
new Republic. It was at the close of September, 1870; 
the Prussians had just completed the investment of Paris. 
Garibaldi had already written to the Committee of Defence, 
offering his services, but he had received no answer. His 
arrival might form a new embarrassment for the provisional 
government. It had enough upon its hands already, and 
the Italian government feared lest Garibaldi might in- 
volve them in new diplomatic complications, for it was 
believed that the ultimate object of his offers of service 
was the recovery of Nice, either by force, or as a gift of 
gratitude. 

He reached Tours at nearly the same moment as Gam- 
betta, who dropped out of the clouds. No party in the 
Republic was very much obliged to the foreigner who had 
taken upon himself the mission to save France. In his 
autobiography he complains bitterly of the indifference 
shown to him by members of the provisional government, 
by "Gambetta most of all, — he from whom I ought to 
have expected, if not personal sympathy, at least active 
and energetic support." 

France, besides having plenty to attend to at home in 
the latter months of 1870, held, as a national axiom of 
diplomacy, the opinion of M. Thiers, — that a united Italy 
was a danger for France ; that France ought to be sur- 
rounded only by nations with loose federative constitu- 
tions. Italian revolutionists might be enthusiastic over the 
triumph of the " good cause " in France, but French repub- 
licans were not sympathetic or enthusiastic over the "good 
cause " as desired by Italians. 



304 ITALY IX THE XIXETEEXTH CEXTURY. 

Mazzini wrote to Garibaldi : " We want Rome and Nice. 
Aid us, and reckon upon us. But if help is to be useful to 
us, it must come with lightning rapidity." 

In March, 1871, there had been a rising stirred up by 
Mazzini's agents among the garrison of Milan. The ring- 
leaders were shot, among them a corporal named Barsanti, 
— a dull, ill-looking fellow with dark skin and hair, whom 
it pleased Italian sympathizers to make into a hero and a 
martyr, endowing him with golden curls, a fair blond face, 
and a despairing mother. 

Garibaldi was first offered the command of two or three 
hundred volunteers assembled at Chamber}'. He refused 
indignantly, and threatened to return home. Then Gam- 
betta, fearing lest any slight to Garibaldi should be resented 
by the radicals, offered him the command of the irregulars 
in the Vosges district, and a brigade of the Garde Mobile. 
Garibaldi's friends had desired for him the command of 
the whole Eastern Army : but Gambetta feared, as he said, 
the remonstrances not only of the generals of his regular 
army, but of the clergy; whom it was the wish of the 
provisional government to conciliate. 

Garibaldi's command consisted of four brigades, one 
commanded by Menotti, one by Ricciotti, one by a Polish 
patriot, and the fourth by another unimportant general. 

Some one, describing the assemblage of these troops, 



'• We seem here in the midst of a bal masque ; thousands of 
different costumes are to be seen. Boys, at most sixteen years 
of age. are camping in the mud of the fields, scarcely covered 
by a thin blue blouse, like those worn by carters. The Bretons 
and French Garibaldians wear low brimmed hats, like those in 
the opera ' Dinorah ' ■ the franc-tireurs all dress unlike each 
other ; the mobiles are mixed with last remnants of the line : 
there are a few hussars among the dragoons and chasseurs 
d'Afrique who have escaped from the Prussians at Sedan and 
Metz : hospital attendants with the red cross on the white field: 
and. amid this mass of soldiers fnot soldiers in the true sense 
of the word), are women and children, who wander about the 
fields to escape from the enemy." 



MENTANA. 305 

The troops of Garibaldi were a horde and not an army ; 
and they everywhere brought down upon themselves the 
indignation of the country people. If they were ragged, 
like FalstafTs men, they had, like Bardolph, no scruple 
about stealing pixes, desecrating churches, and piercing 
altar-pieces with their bayonets. Besides which, Bordone, 
the chiefs quartermaster, was a rogue, implicitly trusted, as 
Wolff, the French spy, had been at Mentana, by the too 
confiding general. 

It is not surprising that, with such forces, Garibaldi may 
be said to have accomplished nothing in the campaign. 
When peace was made at last at Versailles, Bismarck tried 
hard to have Garibaldi and his horde excepted, saying he 
should like to take him to Berlin and exhibit him as a 
monster of ingratitude. It is rather hard to imagine on what 
grounds Bismarck based this character of Garibaldi ; but 
the two men could never have loved or served each other. 

The campaign closed with a gleam of success on the 
20th of January, 1871, when a large force of Prussians was 
driven off from Dijon, and Ricciotti Garibaldi distinguished 
himself. 

The French National Assembly, which met at Bordeaux 
in February, 187 1, was very far from grateful to Garibaldi, 
and threw great blame on him, which was wholly unde- 
served. They expected from him apparently all that could 
have been done by a disciplined and well-appointed army. 
But Frenchmen at that moment were ready to throw blame 
on any one. 

Garibaldi took leave of his army of the Vosges and retired 
to Caprera. A complimentary letter followed him, signed 
by all the members of the provisional government. 

Shortly after that, he was elected to the French Assembly 
from Algeria, but when he presented himself to take his 
seat a violent scene took place in the Chamber. It was 
moved that General Garibaldi was ineligible, being a for- 
eigner. Victor Hugo sprang to the tribune, and exclaimed : 
" Not a king, — not a state, — no one came forward to help 
France, which had done so much for Europe, — only one 



306 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

man ! " Here ironical applause interrupted the orator. 
•'Well ! " he continued, " no Powers interposed, but a man 
came forward, — that man was a power. He came. He 
has fought. I speak but the plain truth. He was the only 
general who fought for France, and was not conquered ! " 

Those only who know Frenchmen, and have seen what 
the French Chamber is like in a moment of excitement, 
can imagine the tumult created by these words. The fury 
of the deputies became so great that Victor Hugo found 
it prudent to leave the hall. 

A few weeks later the Commune of Paris offered Gari- 
baldi the command of the National Guard, but Garibaldi 
declined at once. "What you need," he said, " is an hon- 
est dictator who can choose honest men to act under him. 
If you should have the good fortune to find a Washington, 
France will recover from shipwreck, and in a short time be 
grander than ever." 

Garibaldi returned to his island home, and worked off 
some of his superfluous energy with his pen. Almost every 
week some writing of his, warning, appealing, or vituper- 
ating, found its way into print, and was read throughout the 
reading world. 

For twenty years Garibaldi had been endeavoring in vain 
to get divorced from his bride of an hour, whom he had 
married at Como during his campaign in 1859. But on 
January 14, 1880, the good news reached him that the 
divorce had been obtained. Como, where the marriage 
ceremony had taken place, was, at the time of the marriage, 
Austrian soil, subject to the laws of Austria. The marriage 
laws of Austria differed from those of Piedmont, and Gari- 
baldi had cause to thank his enemies that through that cir- 
cumstance his relief had been obtained. 

He had for many years considered himself the husband 
of Francesca, the nurse brought over to Caprera much 
against his will by his daughter Theresita ; they had had 
several children, whom, despairing of obtaining his divorce, 
Garibaldi had implored the King to legitimize. The 
thing, however, was impossible. " I would have done it 



MENTANA. 307 

myself long ago — if it could have been done," was the 
answer of Victor Emmanuel. 

Ten days after the receipt of the news of the divorce, 
Garibaldi and Francesca were legally married. The crippled 
general sat in his bath chair ; Theresita and her husband 
Canzio, Menotti and his wife, and as many of Garibaldi's 
old friends as could be assembled, were present on the 
occasion. Telegrams of congratulation flowed in, among 
them one from Victor Emmanuel. 

In 1875, a ^ ter R° me na d become the capital of Italy, 
Garibaldi revisited it as a deputy to the Italian Parliament. 
His journey to Rome from Civita Vecchia was a triumph, 
but the Romans found him physically greatly changed. 
He was a very old man, crippled with gout and rheumatism, 
and he could move only with crutches. Some one has said, 
" He was the idol of Italy from the throne to the cottage ; 
Italians worshipped him, but they did not know what to do 
with him." He still wore the red shirt and the gray cloak, 
and his smile lit up his face as sunnily as ever. 

When, on assuming his seat in the Senate House, he 
took the oath of allegiance, the whole house rose and 
cheered him frantically. His intercourse with his King was 
friendly and affectionate ; for one whole month, — his 
" honeymoon " as he afterwards called it, — he was on 
good terms with his government. 

He threw himself ardently into a plan for diverting the 
course of the Tiber, thereby making Rome more healthy, 
and improving the agricultural conditions of the Campagna. 
Victor Emmanuel, Prince Torlonia, and Garibaldi were at 
the head of this plan. "We must do it," cried the voice 
of Rome, " because Garibaldi wishes it." " I thought we 
were two powers in Rome," said Pio Nono kindly, " my- 
self and the King ; now I see that there are three of us." 
But the question of money rose, — the state of the finances 
of Italy did not justify the project. It was never carried 
out, and the whole world may regret the non-discovery as 
yet of the relics of old Roman art and greatness that still 
must lie deep in the bed of Father Tiber. 



308 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

In 18S0, a few months after his marriage, Garibaldi be- 
came enraged with the ministry of the day, then presided 
over by Benedetto Cairoli, brother of the three gallant 
Cairoli who had died for Italy. Benedetto Cairoli was a 
man who commanded universal respect and love. He had 
been a dear friend of Garibaldi, until suddenly this friend- 
ship was broken off by a scrape into which Canzio got him- 
self in Genoa, which landed him in prison. Garibaldi 
denounced his old friend, who had sanctioned the arrest, 
as u a lackey who had thrown off his mask," and he then 
resigned his seat in the Senate Chamber. 

Garibaldi died at Caprera, June 2, 1882, worn out by the 
hardships of his life, its excitements, its disappointments, 
and its honors. He was seventy-five years of age, not old 
as compared with some living statesmen. He had desired 
that his remains should be cremated, but they were buried 
at Caprera. 

On March 19, 1895, the corner stone of a national monu- 
ment to Garibaldi was laid at Rome by the King and Queen 
of Italy, in the presence of the Cabinet Ministers, and in- 
numerable dignitaries. The day was selected as the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of the reunion of Rome to Italy, and the 
site of the monument was appropriately chosen on the 
Janiculum, because Garibaldi's defence of Rome against the 
French in 1849 was there most furious, and most success- 
ful. The monument itself is by a Florentine sculptor, 
Emilio Gallon, and is nearly completed. Inserted in the 
foundation stone is a splendidly wrought casket, with coins, 
medals, and inscriptions attesting the great deeds of Gari- 
baldi, with the appropriate dates. The casket contained 
also the arms of Nice, Savoy, Rome, and Sicily, and a 
medallion portrait of Garibaldi in high relief. It was rev- 
erentially placed in the excavation made for it, by Crispi, 
then Prime Minister, and the Syndic of Rome. The hands 
of Umberto and Margherita did the rest. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 

A VICTOR EMMANUEL never wholly recovered from 

v the effects of the malarial fever, which had so nearly 
ended his days at his hunting seat at San Rossore in the 
autumn of 1S69. But the crowning triumph of his life was 
yet to come. 

Garibaldi, again released from prison, was banished and 
sorrowful, though honors were showered on him the moment 
he set foot upon Italian soil as a free man. He had failed 
to crown his life-work, — that glory was reserved for the 
sovereign whom he had always loved, yet sometimes dis- 
trusted ; to whom he always rendered homage, yet whom he 
often disobeyed ; whose plans he crossed, yet to whom he 
gave a kingdom. As he quitted the prison-fortress of Vari- 
gnano, he wrote these words : " Farewell, Rome ; farewell, 
Capitol ; who knows who will think of thee, — and when?" 

This was at the close of 1867. Before three years were 
out, Rome was the capital of the kingdom of Italy. Pio 
Nono had yielded to an overwhelming force, and had re- 
tired to his prison, — as he ever afterwards designated the 
palace, gardens, and adjoining demesnes of the enormous 
Vatican. 

When news of the repulse of Garibaldi's volunteers at 
Mentana reached Paris, it gave rise to an exciting debate in 
the French Chamber of Deputies. Jules Favre proposed a 
vote of censure on the ministry for their Roman policy. 
Thiers, though no friend to the government of the Emperor, 
gave the ministry his support on this occasion, while M. 
Rouher, the prime minister, asserted with emphasis, as the 



3 I O ITAL Y IN THZ NIA r £ TE EN'i 'H CENTUM Y. 

resolve of the French nation, that Italy should never get 
possession of Rome! "Is that clear?" he cried vehe- 
mently. And the Chamber acquiesced in his "' bv 
a vote of two hundred and thirty-seven ayes against seven- 
teen noes. 

But a storm-cloud was darkening over France. 

"Prussia, or rather the great man who was the brain of 
Prussia, took, of all that was happening, attentive note, 11 sa.] - 
the Coun:tfs Ctsiresco. i4 He was convinced thai the -won- 
ders ' accomplished by the chassepots at Mentana would soon 
lead France to try the effect of the new rifle upon larger 
i-a-it." 

In view of an impending war with Prussia, the Emperor 
Nap Dleon sought alliances with both Italy and Austria. In- 
formal negotiations on the subject passed between Victor 
Emmanuel and the Emperor, and lasted from 1S68 to June, 
1869. The King could never forget his personal friendship 
for Napoleon III., nor the gratitude he owed him for the 
help that had been given him in his time of need. It cost 
him much not to repay that service by hearkening to his 
fellow-sovereign's appeal. But he was bound by the Con- 
stitution to be guided by the opinion of his ministers : and 
the Cabinet, with General Menabrea at its head, steadily 
:t:*:sed to engage in a war so unpopular that it would im- 
peril the new kingdom of Italy, unless the Emperor would 
consent to propitiate the Italian people by withdrawing his 
troops from Rome, and ceasing to protect the Pope as a petty 
temporal Italian prince. This the Emperor and the French 
ministry refused to do : and, when overtures of the same 
nature were made by France t: Austria, the same ar. ; 
was returned. Prussia was then in alliance with Russia, and 
Austri as unwilling to provoke war upon her northern and 
eastern frontiers with the great Slav empire, bes les which 
" from the moment that Austria resigned the Iron Crown. 
the symbol of her Italian power, she had acted towards 
I: with a loyalty that has few parallels in history. And 
she, :oo, replied to Napoleon, 'Rome capital of Italy, or 
no alliance 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 31 I 

So, in the early summer of 1870, the Emperor Napoleon, 
without condescending to give notice of his declaration of 
war to the Powers who had refused him their alliance, un- 
dertook to march his armies to Berlin without assistance. 

Meantime, the finances of Italy caused her rulers great 
embarrassment. From that day to this Italy might have 
echoed the old colored woman's cry, " Money don' make 
happiness ; but not to have it, honey, is mos' times a mighty 
ill-convenient thing." Everything that promotes material 
prosperity had been lacking in Italy when she became a 
kingdom ; roads, railroads, lines of steamers, schools ; water, 
lighting, and sanitary regulations in the cities ; while vast un- 
profitable sums had to be spent on the army and navy ; and 
thus it was that Italy went on light-heartedly, accumulating 
debt without thought of the day of reckoning. 

In 1869 came a financial crisis. The Cabinet of General 
Menabrea was overthrown on a question of the budget, and 
Giovanni Lanza was made prime minister, with Sella, another 
Piedmontese, as his minister of finance. So long as they were 
in power a course of retrenchment was entered on, which, 
had it been pursued by their successors, might have repaired 
the financial situation, which, at the present day, is the 
despair of Italian statesmen. 

Almost simultaneously with the outbreak of war between 
France and Prussia, in the summer of 1870, Christendom 
was excited and astonished by the declaration of the Twen- 
tieth CEcumenical Council, then assembled in Rome, that 
the Pope was infallible. Early in August, the Emperor 
Napoleon began to perceive the worthlessness of his mili- 
tary preparations, and the strength of his opponents. After 
the defeat of the French army at Worth, and their failure to 
gain any decided success at Gravelotte, he renewed his 
entreaties to Victor Emmanuel to come and help him. 
Prince Napoleon was sent to his father-in-law with a sheet 
of blank paper, signed by the Emperor, on which Victor 
Emmanuel was entreated to write down his own terms. It 
was too late ! 

Victor Emmanuel was eager to march his troops into 



312 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

France to the aid of the Emperor. In vain his ministers 
told him that his army was not prepared for an immediate 
campaign. He urged the cause of Napoleon so earnestly, 
that they at last consented to act, if Austria would co- 
operate, and reconsider her decision. But Austria repeated 
" It is too late," and the only help that came to France 
from Italy was from the single arm of Garibaldi. We have 
seen already how little that help served the cause of France, 
and how the man who offered it was subsequently slighted. 

Rome had been evacuated by the French before the 
final catastrophe at Sedan. The French garrison was 
needed to reinforce the armies at home. The little army 
raised by thej Pope, amounting to thirteen thousand six 
hundred men, of whom five thousand three hundred were 
foreign volunteers in his service, was manifestly inadequate 
to oppose the Italian army, should it cross the frontier and 
lay siege to Rome. The King wrote a moving letter to the 
Holy Father, entreating him to consent to the new order 
of things, declaring at the same time that, as a Christian 
and a Catholic, he willingly bowed to the Pope's spiritual 
authority, and should ever continue to do so. 

The only answer the Pope would give to the nobleman 
who brought this letter was : " Signor Conte, I am not 
a prophet, but I dare to foretell that the Italian troops shall 
not enter Rome." 

He was, at least, a brave old man. In spite of events, he 
believed in his infallibility to the last moment. Strange 
that we all, — Pope, penitent, and unbeliever, — will persist 
in clinging to our own ideas of what God ought to do, and 
both Pope and penitent conceive that He will accommodate 
His will to their own wishes ! 

A few months earlier Lord Clarendon had arrived in 
Rome. He was an English statesman for whom Victor 
Emmanuel entertained profound respect. 

" The King talked freely to him of his difficulties and per- 
plexities, and asked him to be the bearer of a message to the 
Pontiff. He begged him to assure his Holiness of his affec- 
tion, which no political dissensions had power to change ; to lay 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUELS REIGN. 313 

before him the true state of affairs, and to say that the longer 
the policy of resistance lasted, the more painful would be the 
inevitable end. Lord Clarendon delivered the message. ' They 
are strange people, these Italians,' said the Pope, 'pretending 
to unite Italy without my aid.' Lord Clarendon suggested 
that his Holiness might aid in the process by sending his 
blessing to the King of Italy. But Pio Nono was obdurate. 
He said he was not trusting in foreign interventions, but in 
some miracle of Providence. ' Providence has worked mira- 
cles, your Holiness, during the last ten years, but all in favor 
of Italy,' was the prompt reply of the English statesman." 

Meantime, the Italian army had been massed along the 
Pontifical frontier, and only waited for an order to march 
on Rome. It consisted of about sixty-five thousand men, 
and ten thousand more subsequently reinforced them. It 
was under the command of General Raffaele Cadorna, and 
was in five divisions, two of which were under the command 
of old officers of the Red Shirts, Bixio and Cosenz. On 
the 12th of September, the Italian troops crossed the Pon- 
tifical frontier. It was one week after the surrender at 
Sedan. There was no regular declaration of war, — the 
theory being that Rome was a part of Italy, and that the 
King of Italy had a right to reclaim it as such. The 
Italian army surrounded Rome, and closed in upon the 
city, the Papal army retiring before it, having orders to 
do so from its commander-in-chief, General Kanzler. 
Bixio's division was stationed between Rome and the sea. 
Into Civita Vecchia, one of the first objects of attack, 
Colonel Charette, a Breton, and a tried leader of the Papal 
Zouaves, threw himself by a wonderful forced march through 
by-ways and over mountain passes, but he was at once 
ordered by General Kanzler to bring his men to Rome. 
The commandant in Civita Vecchia promptly capitulated 
to Bixio, to avoid, he said, the bombardment of the city. 
Civita Vecchia was that part of the Roman dominions most 
favorable to the cause of the unity of Italy. It is emphati- 
cally asserted by writers who sustain the cause of the 
temporal power of the Pope, that the native population in 
his dominions was not enthusiastic in the cause of the 



3H ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

invaders. This view seems supported both by passages in 
Garibaldi's " Rule of the Monk," and in his autobiography. 

" In Rome," he says, "and in the Campagna, the population 
is composed of priests, of some honest middle class families, 
some boatmen, and the lazzaroni. In the country, where igno- 
rance is fostered by the priesthood and has struck deeper root, 
the people side with the clergy, but especially in the Roman 
Campagna. where all the landowners are either priests or 
powerful friends of the priesthood." 

Then, too, the country people were in great fear of the 
Italian troops. They remembered the raid of the Garibal- 
dians three years before, and the reputation they had left 
behind them at Monte Rotondo, for sacrilege, plunder, and 
insults to women. These memories, of course, had not 
been allowed to die out, and were cherished in the hearts 
of the citizens and peasantry when the day came for the 
invasion of the Papal territory. Added to this, in Rome 
all the men of the upper classes who had liberal tendencies 
were either in exile or in the Italian army ; and those who 
have had an opportunity to watch an urban population, in 
times of revolt or revolution, know well that the chief feel- 
ing among citizens is to hold aloof, and let the conflict be 
decided by men who have no domestic responsibilities. 

The Pope's army, as I have said, appears to have con- 
sisted of between thirteen and fourteen thousand men. 
Of these, eight thousand five hundred were enrolled as 
''Romans," — that word covering all Italians, and not being 
exclusively applied to the inhabitants of Rome ; while more 
than five thousand were foreign volunteers, of whom it 
must be said that they maintained good discipline, and 
fought with devotion and braver) 7 . 

On the same day that Civita Vecchia capitulated, i. e., 
September 14, 1870, the main body of the Italian army, 
under General Cadorna, beheld from the Alban hills, as 
they advanced, the dome of St. Peter's glittering on the 
southern horizon. They did not, however, attack the city 
for several days, though brisk skirmishing went on in even- 
direction. There were still attempts made to effect a com- 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 3 I 5 

promise by the efforts of diplomacy. Count Arnim, the 
Prussian Ambassador at Rome, was especially active. A 
proposition was made by the Italian government to leave to 
the Pope the Leonine City, — that is, the part of Rome 
lying on the right bank of the Tiber, including St. Peter's 
and the Castle of St. Angelo ; but Pio Nono would not 
accept what would seem to acknowledge any right on the 
part of the conquerors. His instructions to General Kanzler 
were as follows : — 

" General : At this moment, when a great sacrifice and a 
most enormous injustice are about to be consummated, and the 
troops of a Catholic King, without provocation, nay, without 
even the least appearance of any motive, surround and besiege 
the capital of the Catholic world, I feel in the first place the 
necessity of thanking you, General, and our entire army, fot 
your generous conduct up to the present time ; for the affection 
you have shown to the Holy See ; and for your willingness to 
consecrate yourselves entirely to the defence of the metropolis. 
May these words be a solemn document to certify to the disci- 
pline, the loyalty, and the valor of the army in the service of the 
Holy See. 

" As regards the duration of the defence, I feel it my duty to 
command that this shall only consist in such a protest as shall 
testify to the violence done to us and nothing more, — in other 
words, that negotiations for surrender shall be opened as soon 
as a breach shall have been made. At a moment when the 
whole of Europe is mourning over the numerous victims of the 
war now in progress between two great nations, let it never be 
said that the Vicar of Christ, however unjustly assailed, had to 
give his consent to a great shedding of blood. Our cause is the 
cause of God, and we put our whole defence in His hands. 
From my heart, General, I bless you, and your whole army. 

Pius P. P. IX. 

" From the Vatican, Sept. 19, 1870." 

The O'Clery, an Irish gentleman, then serving in the ranks 
of the Papal Zouaves, who has since written a book on the 
Pope's side of the controversy, called "The Making of 
Italy," thus writes : — 

11 The night between the 19th and the 20th was an anxious 
one. There were numerous alarms caused by the enemy's 



316 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

scouts (/. £., the Italians) appearing near the walls. The sentries 
on the old ramparts of Rome could see lights flashing in the 
vineyards and gardens, and could hear the sound of pick and 
shovel preparing positions for the artillery which was to open 
for the invaders a way through the walls of Rome. In the city 
the chaplains were busy through the night hearing the confes- 
sions of men who were preparing for a death, which they be- 
lieved to be inevitable, for all looked forward to a struggle a 
Poutrance, against sixfold odds, — a struggle, not on the walls 
alone, but from house to house. ' We will all die for the 
Holy Father,' said a brave Dutch Zouave, in broken French, to 
a chaplain, speaking the mind of the whole army. At the early 
masses said before daybreak, at various points near the walls, 
officers and soldiers received the Holy Communion. The Red 
Cross of St. Peter was affixed to every uniform. At half past 
four all were at their posts. Along the far extended lines of 
the Italians, drum and bugle notes, the galloping of estafettes, 
and the rumbling of cannon wheels told that all was fast pre- 
paring for the attack. The sun rose that morning in the full 
brilliance of the early Italian autumn ; and through the still air, 
which was peculiarly clear that day, the officers and men of the 
Papal army stationed on dome and church tower to observe the 
enemy's movements, could see far over the Campagna, and up 
to the blue Apennines on the one hand, and out to the sea- 
coast on the other." 

At nine o'clock on the morning of the 20th, the whole 
diplomatic body assembled in one of the halls of the Vatican. 
The Pope entered looking serene, though the thunder of the 
Italian cannon was in his ears. He said it was twenty-two 
years since a similar assemblage had waited on him under 
almost similar circumstances in the Quirinal. He alluded 
to a threat attributed to Bixio when he served under Gari- 
baldi in days gone by, that he would throw the Pope and 
all the cardinals into the Tiber. He told how he had 
visited the American College the previous day, and that 
when the students asked for arms he had refused them, but 
had told them to help in taking care of the wounded. As 
he was thus conversing, he was called out to receive a mes- 
senger from General Kanzler, who brought news that a 
break had been made in the walls. " I have given the 
order to capitulate," said the Pope, returning to the ambas- 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 3 1 7 

sudors, with his eyes full of tears. "The defence could 
not be prolonged without bloodshed, and I wish to avoid that. 
I will not speak to you of myself. It is not for myself I weep, 
but for those poor children who have come to defend me as 
their father. You will each take care of those of your own 
country. There are men of all nations among them." Then 
he dismissed the ambassadors, and withdrew. 

The corps diplomatiqice went at once in a body to 
Cadorna's headquarters, in order to beg him to give favor- 
able terms to the Papal army. Cadorna was quite willing 
to grant their request. The capitulation stipulated that all 
Rome except the Leonine City was to be put into the 
hands of the Italians, that the Papal troops were to receive 
the honors of war, and the foreign volunteers were to be 
sent to their own homes. 

The Zouaves and the Legion had made many friends in 
the Eternal City, and there was sorrow at their humiliation 
as they marched forth to Civita Vecchia, first having, with 
flashing swords waved in the air, received the Holy 
Father's blessing from a balcony of the Vatican. Their 
journey to Civita Vecchia was long and weary, but a few 
hours after they got there the French Zouaves and the 
Legion of Antibes were shipped to their own land, where 
they joined the army of the Loire, and fought bravely for 
France, many of them being killed by Prussian balls. The 
Irish, English, and Americans were shipped to England ; 
the Belgians and Dutch were sent over the frontier into 
Switzerland, and there were left to beg their way home. 
The Italians were sent to the fortress of Allessandria, whence 
small parties of them were despatched to various parts of 
Italy, — all but the squadligieri, a corps of peasants largely 
consisting of bandits, who, on the principle of set a thief to 
catch a thief, had been enlisted by the Pope to put down 
brigands. These, till the country grew more quiet, were 
detained in prison. 

As soon as possible a. plebiscite was held in Rome. We 
know how to appreciate the value of a plebiscite. This one 
gave forty thousand seven hundred and eighty-five votes for 



318 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

annexation to Italy, forty-six votes against it. The Leonine 
City was not called upon to vote, but did so on its own 
responsibility, and sent up its ballots — all ayes — in a 
glass jar. Meantime crowds poured into Rome, calling 
themselves "exiles." A very large number of these so- 
called exiles were roughs, and came from other Italian 
cities. Disorder became so great that the military had to 
put it down, and General Cadorna was requested to extend 
his protection even over the Leonine City. 

All the courts of Europe acquiesced in the changed state 
of affairs in Rome, and, on the 9th of October, King Victor 
Emmanuel received a Roman deputation headed by the Duke 
de Sermoneta, which came to present to him the result of 
the plebiscite. In reply, while rejoicing that the name of 
Rome was reunited to that of Italy, " the two names dearest 
to my heart," he said: "I, as a King and a Catholic, in 
proclaiming the unity of Italy, remain firm in the deter- 
mination to secure the liberty of the Church and of the 
High Pontiff; and with this solemn declaration I accept at 
your hands the Roman plebiscite, and present it to the Ital- 
ians, trusting that they will know how to show themselves 
equal to the glories of our past and present fortunes." 

In conformity with these sentiments, the Italian Parlia- 
ment, which met for the last time in Florence, December 
5, 1870, drew up what was called the Law of the Papal 
Guarantees. 

It was divided into two parts : — 

I. The Prerogatives of the Sovereign Pontiff and 
of the Holy See. 

The provisions in this were substantially as follows : — 

I. The inviolability of the person of the Pontiff. 

II. All acts either of violence or insult, by word or deed, 
offered to the Pontiff to be severely punished, the discussion 
of religious subjects being left free. 

III. Royal honors in the Italian kingdom to be paid to 
His Holiness, his guards and his palaces being recognized 
as belonging to himself alone. 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 319 

IV. An endowment of three millions and a quarter of 
francs to be paid to him per annum. This to be an unalien- 
able revenue, never to be taxed, to meet all the needs of the 
Roman Church and other expenses. 

V. The Vatican, the Lateran, and the Villa Castel Go- 
dolfo are assured to him, with all their belongings, gardens, 
museums, libraries, etc. 

VI. During the time of the election of a new Pope, no 
judiciary or political authority shall interfere with the cardi- 
nals. The same in the event of an (Ecumenical Council. 

VII. No Italian official shall have any right to intrude 
into the Pope's palaces, unless authorized by the Sovereign 
Pontiff, by the Conclave, or by the Council. 

VIII. Visits, perquisitions, or seizure of any papers, etc., 
are forbidden in any pontifical congregations invested with 
purely spiritual functions. 

IX. The Pontiff to be free to fulfil all the functions of his 
spiritual authority ; and to have affixed to the doors of all 
churches in Rome notice of such acts. 

X. Ecclesiastics who are officially in Rome attendant 
on the acts of the Pontiffs spiritual ministry are not to be 
molested. 

XL Foreign envoys to the Pope shall be treated in all 
respects like foreign ambassadors. 

XII. The correspondence of the Pontiff is not to be 
interfered with. He may have his own post-office, couriers, 
and telegraph service, without tax or charge. 

XIII. In Rome and in its six suburban sees, ecclesiasti- 
cal institutions for the education and culture of priests shall 
not in any way be interfered with by the scholastic authori- 
ties in the Italian kingdom. 

II. The Relations of the State with the Church. 

XIV. No restriction is placed on the right of meeting of 
members of the Catholic elergy. 

XV. The Italian government renounces its right to be 
temporal head of the Church in Sicily. Bishops shall not 
be required to take the oath of allegiance. Italians only 



320 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

shall be appointed to sees, except in Rome. The King 
renounces the right of nominating or presenting to the 
higher sees. 

XVI., XVII., XVIII., and XIX. are articles referring to 
ecclesiastical property, the State retaining some power over 
Church temporalities, while giving up all right to interfere in 
matters purely spiritual. 

" Such full liberty," says Mr. Probyn, " is not accorded to the 
Roman Church either by France, Spain, Bavaria, or Austria, for 
the consent of the government is required to confirm appoint- 
ments to the episcopate. So, too, in the latter countries the 
government has a right to prohibit the publication of papal bulls, 
briefs, etc., whereas in Italy all such rights have now been re- 
nounced by the civil power." 

Pio Nono and his advisers protested earnestly against all 
that had taken place, including the guarantees, and Catho- 
lics were forbidden to take part in any election ox plebiscite, 
— a prohibition in force until the present day; thereby de- 
priving the government of a valuable element in parliament, 
often in need of what was once happily called "His Majesty's 
opposition." " Ne elettori, ne eletti," — neither electors 
nor elected, — has been the mot d'ordre from the Vatican, 
responded to by the cry of the advanced Republicans, 
" Neither guarantees, nor guaranteed." 

There were three courses open to Pio Nono. He could 
submit to events ; he could quit Rome ; he could shut him- 
self up in the Vatican, — containing, it is said, eleven 
hundred rooms, with its gardens and its villas, — and then 
consider himself a prisoner. He chose the latter course, 
and posed before the world accordingly. 

Victor Emmanuel's first visit to Rome was made incognito. 
A terrible overflow of the Tiber had desolated the surround- 
ing country, and caused great distress among the poor, both 
in the city and in the Campagna. The King went to the 
scene of desolation, and did all he could to mitigate the 
calamity. Early in July, 187 1, he made his public entry 
into Rome, and took up his residence in the Quirinal. 
"We are here, and we intend to stay here," he said to his 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 32 1 

first Roman parliament, which he opened in November. 
The Florentines, to whom the loss of King and Court and 
parliament was a great blow, behaved very differently from 
the Turinese under similar circumstances. They made 
every demonstration of loyalty, rejoicing that Italy was now 
" complete." 

Victor Emmanuel, before taking his seat upon his throne 
in Rome, assisted at the opening of the Mont Cenis tunnel, 
and was feted in his own Turin with much enthusiasm. But 
this great triumph having crowned his life-work, the props 
of his throne began to fall away from it one by one. Cavour 
was dead, so was d'Azeglio. Manzoni died at a great age ; 
then Cavour's successor, Rattazzi, died also. Louis Napo- 
leon's death in 1873 was a personal sorrow to the Re Ga- 
lantuomo, who loved him far better than the Italian people 
did. Mazzini died in 1872. 

" He was," said the London " Spectator," speaking of his 
death, " that rare character, a political idealogue. ... It was 
on an Italian Assembly, sitting in Rome, and reigning by the 
full consent of Italians over the whole peninsula, that he ex- 
pected a divine influence to descend, which should make its 
proceedings as important to the world as the decrees of Coun- 
cils once were to Christianity. That Assembly should make its 
laws the models for human legislation, and its resolves the basis 
for the grand code which should ultimately regulate our race. 1 . . . 
He had to fashion his tools, as well as to use them, and using, 
when compelled, materials like the Carbonari, the Secret Socie- 
ties, and the Socialists, it is little marvel that he himself was 
believed for years to be the greatest of Revolutionists, Social- 
ists, Terrorists, the chief and soul of all the parties which Conti- 
nental statesmen hold in such abhorrence. ... It was Mazzini 
who revived among Italians the idea of nationality, of the unity 
of their nation, ... so that men, accustomed from their infancy 
to think of their next neighbors as foreigners, had come to long 
for the unity of their nation, to believe that Italy was above her 

1 As I was copying this passage, a Roman newspaper containing 
the last debate on the war in Abyssinia was put into my hands. Truly 
there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous ! The world's 
regeneration will never come through parliamentary debates, unless 
indeed parliaments endure to the Millennium. — E. W. L. 

21 



322 ITALY IN THE XI XE TEE NTH CENTURY. 

provinces, to postpone hatreds and jealousies, and causes of 
division, some as old as civilization, to the one grand end, — the 
restoration of Italy to herself. . . . The political faults of Maz- 
zini were all of the same type as his virtues. He was incapable 
of compromise. He could not accept those who differed from 
him except as instruments. He no more in his heart tolerated 
the house of Savoy than the house of Hapsburg, or thought Italy 
perfect as a monarchy than as a prey to petty despotisms. His 
ideal was always with him, and latterly, we suspect, events had 
only deepened the force of his convictions. As a young man he 
had seen three visions : — the unity of Italy; the enfranchise- 
ment of Rome ; and the rise of his half-inspired Assembly. 
Two of the visions had come true, and till his death he labored 
for the realization of the third one, the ideal Republic/' 

In i S 73, Victor Emmanuel accepted an invitation to 
visit his relations in Vienna, with whom he had been at 
war almost ever since he ascended his father's throne. He 
stayed four days with the Emperor of Austria, greatly en- 
joying his visit and the resumption of friendly relations 
with members of his own and his wife's family. He next 
went to Berlin, where he won all hearts by his simple bon- 
homie. He had wanted, as we have seen, to send aid to 
the French and their Emperor when in distress, but had 
not been allowed to do so by his ministers. At a Court 
dinner at Berlin, when sitting at the right hand of old Em- 
peror William, he suddenly said to him. " Do you know I 
should have made war on you but for these gentlemen?" 
— pointing to his ministers; and then he went on to say 
that such had been his personal regard for Napoleon and 
his grateful remembrance of his services to Italy, that only 
a sense of his duty to his own country kept him from going 
to his aid in his hour of adversity. The old Emperor 
seemed charmed with his frankness. 

In 1876, when Victor Emmanuel had been on his throne 
twenty- seven years, the Emperors of Austria and Germany 
came to return his visits. Neither came to Rome from 
motives of consideration to the Pope ; and the Emperor of 
Austria chose Venice, his own city of old, as the place 
where to meet his old enemy, — now his host and friend. 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 323 

" When the train was expected, Victor Emmanuel walked 
feverishly up and down the platform, and when the Emperor 
sprang out, the first face he saw was that of his host, his 
dear friend, ally, and brother. The sovereigns kissed each 
other and walked arm in arm out of the station." 

The people of Venice left nothing undone to welcome 
and honor their former sovereign, whose rule had been so 
hated. The Italian tricolor on the great flagstaff's in the 
Piazza of St. Mark now floated peacefully with the black 
and gold banner of Austria. The visit of the Emperor of 
Germany, which took place at Milan was no less successful. 
Victor Emmanuel and the Crown Prince Frederick were per- 
sonally attached to each other. 

All the seven years that Victor Emmanuel reigned in 
Rome, Pio Nono remained within the limits of the Vatican. 
In his allocutions he called himself a martyr and a prisoner, 
but in reality he was a benign old gentleman, with kindly 
courteous manners. In politics he was wholly governed by 
Cardinal Antonelli. In private he always spoke with kind- 
ness of Victor Emmanuel, calling him sometimes a " good 
fellow. " And once when Cardinal Antonelli was not upon 
the watch to prevent him, he wrote the King a letter with 
his own hand, ending, " Full of paternal affection, I pray 
God for your Majesty, I pray Him for Italy, and I pray 
Him for the Church." 

This letter gave great comfort to Victor Emmanuel, the 
sorrow of whose life was to be disowned by the heads of 
the Church, while he said often of himself, " I am not a bad 
Christian." 

On New Year's Day, 1878, the King held his reception, 
but was not feeling well. A day or two after, he was greatly 
affected by news of the death of La Marmora. There had 
been always a lack of cordiality between the two men. 
Each esteemed the other, but they were not simpatico. 
La Marmora had been deeply wounded by not having been 
asked in time to take part in the King's triumphal entry 
into Venice. The King had resented the publication by 
him of two pamphlets which La Marmora considered neces- 



324 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

sary for the defence of his own conduct in the campaign of 
1866, — " Un po* piu di Luce," and " Segreti di Stato " (" A 
little more Light," and "State Secrets "). As La Marmora 
said himself in the Chamber, speaking on this subject, " I 
do not want to pass down to posterity as a great captain or 
a great diplomatist, but I hold to living and dying as a good 
citizen, and as a soldier without stain." As soon as Victor 
Emmanuel had been made aware of his old friend's illness, 
he wrote to him in his old familiar, kindly tone, and affec- 
tionate messages were sent by Prince Humbert and Mar- 
gherita. The poor general was consoled also by the many 
marks of sympathy and esteem that were showered on him 
from all parts of Europe, as well as from his own people, in 
the last months of his life. 

The news of La Marmora's death completely prostrated 
the King, already attacked by inflammation of the lungs, and 
in a few hours he was no more. Prince Humbert and Mar- 
gherita were beside his bed, but Amadeo, Princess Clotilde, 
and Queen Maria Pia were too far off to be summoned. 

The Court chaplain applied to the parish priest for per- 
mission to administer the last sacraments to the dying King. 
The parish priest applied to Pio Xono, who granted the 
permission at once, and later in the day came a cardinal 
with the Pope's especial benediction. Thus Victor Em- 
manuel's most earnest earthly wish was granted. He died 
as a good Catholic as well as a good Christian. His last 
words were, " My children ! My children ! " 

The new King, Humbert or Umberto, issued the next day 
a very affecting proclamation : — 

" Italians ! An immense calamity has befallen us. Victor 
Emmanuel, the founder and uniter of the kingdom of Italy, has 
been taken from us. I received his last sigh, which was for 
the nation, and his last wishes, which were for the happiness of 
his people. His voice, which will always resound in my heart, 
imposes on me the task of vanquishing my sorrow, and points 
out to me my duty. At this moment there is but one consola- 
tion possible for us, that is to show ourselves worthy of him. . . . 
Italians ! your first king is dead. His successor will prove to 
you that constitutions do not die. Let us unite in this hour of 




CARDINAL ANTONELLI. 



LAST YEARS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL'S REIGN. 325 

great sorrow and strengthen that concord which has been the 
salvation of Italy." 

Victor Emmanuel's funeral in Rome was magnificent. 
Among the garlands laid upon his coffin was a wreath sent 
by Queen Victoria. On his tomb is inscribed : — 

"vlttorio emmanuele ii., the father of his country. 

Italy, with the pride of a Mother 

And the grief of a Daughter, beseeches for her great King, 

Who was a faithful Citizen and a victorious Soldier, 

The immortality that is due to the good man 

And to the Hero." 

The anecdotes of Victor Emmanuel in private life are 
very numerous. We have space only for a few, but many 
are told in his " Life " by Mr. Godkin. 

He rose early, and spent the first two hours of the day 
in exercise. By the time most men begin to awake he was 
ready for a hard day's work at his " profession," as he 
always called his kingship. He was very hardy, and never 
wore flannel, which may have been the cause of the chill 
which resulted in his death. He never had more than two 
suits of clothes at a time beside his uniforms, and one day 
at Naples a gamin called out : " See how our ministers 
treat our good King ! With all the money we pay in 
taxes they don't give him money enough to buy a new pair 
of pantaloons ! " 

His " heart was kind and soft," and his hand only too 
freely open in charity. He had a quick temper, and quar- 
relled not infrequently with his best friends, but he was 
always ready and eager to " make up." He detested 
unpunctuality. Once a young engineer kept him waiting 
ten minutes, and was received with considerable fierceness. 
The young man was overwhelmed, which the King per- 
ceiving turned from him and went into his chamber, whence 
he returned with a beautiful gold watch saying, "Keep this, 
and remember it always keeps time with my own." 

One evening, as his carriage was driving up to the door 



326 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

of the theatre, he was struck in the face by a hard cushion 
flung by a woman in the crowd. He was very angry, and 
his attendants were much alarmed. The cushion was sus- 
pected to contain bcmbs or dynamite. He entered the 
theatre, however, holding it in his hand : and sent at once a 
gentleman in attendance to see who and what the woman was 
who had so outraged him. The messenger returned, say- 
ing that the woman was overwhelmed with a sense of the 
impropriety she had committed, but the sofa cushion had 
been intended as a gift to the King. "'Well, take it back, 
then," said the King, " and tell her I have no need of any 
such articles." But as he was handing it to a servant he 
saw a note pinned to the tassels. It was a begging letter. 
"Ah ! — as usual," said the King, and recovered his good 
humor. 

The next day he inquired after the woman, who was a 
seamstress at the theatre, and heard she had been dismissed 
by the manager. "Ah! — I am sorry for that," said the 
King. " Go to the manager and ask him to pardon her, 
and take her two hundred and fifty francs, and tell her 
never to throw anything in my face again, — at least 
without warning me!" 

He was devoted to horses, and kept splendid ones of 
every kind in his stables. A little English terrier, called 
Milord, was his constant companion. When the King died, 
his attendants had hard work to save poor Milord's life, 
so bent was he on dying of grief and hunger. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PAPACY. 

/^\N the 20th of September, 1870, when all eyes were 
^^ fixed on the last acts of the great drama of the 
Franco- Prussian war, Pio Nono proclaimed himself a pris- 
oner in the Vatican, and General Cadorna, in the name of 
Victor Emmanuel, took possession of the Eternal City. 

The fall of the Pope's temporal power took place nine 
months after his spiritual power had received supreme ex- 
altation and recognition in the Catholic world. In 1864 
he had published his celebrated Syllabus, and on June 29, 
1868, he issued a summons to cardinals, bishops, and 
prelates throughout the world, to send representatives to 
Rome to an CEcumenical Council, which was to meet on 
December 8, 1869, — for the purpose of confirming it. 

In the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, at Trent, is an 
elaborate inscription, saying that " within those sacred 
walls the Divine Spirit spoke for the last time." For three 
centuries that boast had been maintained, and, at length, 
when Rome was threatened within and without by enemies, 
when the Pope was sustained upon his throne by foreign 
soldiers, and when his temporal power was impaired, the 
moment was chosen for a new (Ecumenical Council, — and 
the dignitaries of the Catholic Church were called to 
assemble in the Eternal City. 

The original idea of an CEcumenical Council was that it 
should be a parliament of the civilized world, held in the 
interests of religion, and to this end the first seven general 
councils were convoked by Roman emperors. But this 
idea of a parliament of religion was not that of Pius IX. 



328 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

and his advisers. The General Council of 1869 was to be 
of the nature of the parliament of Paris before the Revolu- 
tion, which was called together only to register, or not to 
register, the ordinances of the King. 

Down to the days of the Council of Trent, the rulers of 
Christian States, or their representatives, were admitted to 
the council. In a still existing picture of the Council of 
Trent in session, the representatives of all the European 
sovereigns are shown, with their suites in attendance ; the 
Spanish envoy, however, sits apart, surrounded by his 
people, because the question of his precedence over France 
and Germany could not be settled to his satisfaction. 

The Council held in Rome, December 5, 1869, could not, 
therefore, in a proper sense be called a genera] council. 
It was not a council of the old Roman empire, that insti-tu- 
tion being a thing of the past. It was not a council in 
which the laity were represented with the clergy. It was 
not a council at which all parts of Christendom were to 
assist. It was a council of the clergy of the Latin Church, 
and nothing more. 

During the months that elapsed between the summoning 
of the Council and its assembling it came to be generally 
understood that it was called together simply to ratify the 
eighty-four propositions in the Syllabus, of which Arch- 
bishop Manning foretold : " The Syllabus will become the 
rule of thought with respect to the eighty-four errors which 
it condemns ; and the eighty-four truths which are con- 
demned by those errors will become the rule and law of the 
intellectual belief of man." 

But there was strong opposition to the principles laid 
down in the Syllabus, throughout the Roman Catholic 
world. Earnest remonstrances were published, intended 
to prepare the minds of the prelates expected to assemble 
at the Council for what was before them. Among the 
most earnest writers were Monsignor Dupanloup, Bishop 
of Orleans, and M. de Montalembert, writers well known 
and honored, not only in their own but other countries, 
and whose opinions carried weight beyond the walls 



THE PAPACY. 329 

which excluded from the public the deliberations of the 
Council. 

The Syllabus combated eighty-four errors, — errors, that 
is to say, in the opinion of the Pope and his advisers ; and 
it consisted of five principal propositions. 

I. It asserted the power of the Church to inflict tem- 
poral punishment, including death. 

II. It asserted the political supremacy of the Pope, as 
King of kings, including the power of deposing refractory 
rulers. 

III. It called for the "correction of history," with a 
view to proving that the clergy could not lawfully be made 
amenable to the civil law. 

IV. It pronounced all freedom of conscience and of 
worship to be unlawful. 

V. It condemned modern civilization, and constitutional 
government. 

Besides giving assent to these propositions in the Sylla- 
bus, two other matters were to be acted upon by the 
Council. 

It was to put forth as an article of Catholic belief an 
assertion of the bodily assumption into heaven of the 
Mother of Our Lord, — a belief not heard of till the fourth 
century, when it is to be found in two apocryphal writings, 
one attributed to St. John, the other to Bishop Melito of 
Sardis. It had, however, been generally received by 
Catholics after the seventh century. 

The third and most important subject which required the 
assent and endorsement of this CEcumenical Council, held 
nearly two thousand years after the Apostles first preached 
Christianity, was the doctrine of the Pope's personal infalli- 
bility. The Roman Catholic Church has always claimed to 
be infallible ; in its dogmas it cannot err, but the question 
had never been settled where and with whom did this 
infallibility reside, — with the Popes, or with the Councils? 
The last three Councils had emphatically pronounced 
against the Pope. His decision ex cathedra was only that 
of the most learned and exalted doctor. As such, appar- 



330 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

ently, Pius IX. put forth his Syllabus, and desired to have 
the propositions it contained confirmed by the Council. 
But he wanted it to go further and to pronounce his future 
opinions and decisions infallible. He desired that his 
power of issuing infallible decrees under the inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit should be an article of faith throughout 
Catholic Christendom. 

Now, as there was a wide-spread feeling amongst men of 
enlightenment in his own communion that the Syllabus was 
a mixed collection of general truths, empty truisms, incor- 
rect statements, and unmeaning phrases, it was hard for 
such men not only to accept it as a rider to their faith, 
but to declare themselves and others bound to accept any 
more such utterances put forth by the same authority. 

The party that supported the views of Pio Nono, who, it 
must be said, sincerely and earnestly believed in his own 
pretensions to infallibility, was the party of the Jesuits, with 
a contingent of prelates who held ultramontane views. 

The dissentients were the majority of foreign cardinals 
and nearly all the foreign bishops. Archbishop Manning, 
not then invested with the purple, was active and emphatic 
in support of the Pope's views. 

It is, of course, impossible for me to go into any argu- 
ment concerning the dogmas brought forward for the con- 
sideration of the Council. I can only tell facts. 

On some points the Council seems to have been called 
upon to place itself in the position of King Canute when 
he sat upon the sands and commanded the advancing tide 
to fall back from him ; while the Pope, as his views were 
interpreted by Archbishop Manning, seems to say " I 
acknowledge no civil superior; I am the subject of no 
prince, and I claim more than that, — I claim to be the 
supreme judge and director of the consciences of men ; of 
the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that sits on 
the throne ; of the household that sits in the shade of 
privacy, and the legislature that makes laws for the king- 
doms ; I am the last, sole, supreme judge of what is right 
and wrong. What you call ' progress ' is a departure from 



THE PAPACY. 331 

Christian civilization. In that path you will have many 
companions, but me you will not find." 

The great struggle in the Council was over the Pope's 
views respecting the world's progress and the doctrine of 
his infallibility, — an assuredly most comfortable doctrine, 
could it have been established, — "a soft cushion for the 
head troubled by doubts to rest upon." 

As the objects of the Council were known generally 
among the clergy some months before it met, the opposi- 
tion found voice in books and pamphlets before the day 
appointed. The Pope and his advisers, warned of what 
they might expect if they permitted free discussion, de- 
cided to smother it. Not only was it made unlawful to 
report the words uttered by the speakers (a precaution 
many may consider hardly blameworthy), but the names 
of those who spoke were to be withheld. The opposition 
party in the Council was reckoned at something like two 
hundred bishops, including several cardinals. Persistent 
efforts were made to induce the seven hundred and fifty 
bishops present to sign a petition in favour of the Infallibil- 
ity dogma, but only one hundred signatures could be 
secured. Archbishop Darboy of Paris (the martyr of the 
Commune), Bishop Dupanloup, and Archbishop Stross- 
meyer, of Bosnia, led the opposition. 

The Council was coerced, not by force but by pressure, 
into adopting the views it had been called together to 
endorse. By arbitrary authority unofficial meetings of 
bishops were forbidden, even in private houses, and a 
board of nine bishops that had been organized, — three 
French, three German, and three English — were warned 
not to assemble. Books that opposed the dogmas the 
Council had met together to enforce were seized by the 
Roman government. 

As I have no right to print anything in this connection 
on my own authority, I will add a letter written by Arch- 
bishop Strossmeyer, already mentioned as one of the leaders 
of the opposition party. It was published in a German 
paper, Nov. 27, 1870, and republished 1881. 



332 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CEXTURY. 

"My Honored Friexd, — Some time ago I received a 
communication from Bonn, in which some distinguished Catho- 
lics put the question to me, whether I, as a member of the 
minority in the Vatican Council, persisted in the conviction 
which I there expressed and defended. Permit me. my dear 
friend, to make you the medium of the following reply, — to the 
effect that my conviction, which I shall uphold before the judg- 
ment seat of God as I upheld it in Rome, is firm and unshak- 
able. And this conviction is, that the Vatican Council was 
wanting in that freedom which was necessary to make it a real 
Council, and to justify it in making decrees calculated to bind 
the consciences of the whole Catholic world. . . . Everything 
which could resemble a guarantee for the liberty of discussion 
was carefully excluded. Everything calculated to convert dis- 
cussion into the mere expression of preconceived opinion was 
brought into play in the most lavish, and I might say. most 
shameless manner. And, as though all this did not suffice. 
there was added a public violation of the ancient Catholic prin- 
ciple, Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. In a word, 
the most naked and hideous exercise of papal infallibility was 
necessary before the Infallibility could be elevated into a dogma. 
If, to all this, be added that the Council was not regularly con- 
stituted; that the Italian bishops, prelates, and officials were in 
a monstrously predominating majority : that the apostolic vicars 
were dominated by the propaganda in the most scandalous 
manner; that the whole apparatus of that political power which 
the Pope then exercised in Rome contributed to intimidate, and 
repress all free utterance, you can easily perceive what sort of 
liberty — that essential attribute of all councils — was displayed 
at Rome." 

It should be said, in justice to Pio Nono, that he was a 
very weak man, and a man of whom it has been said that, 
like Louis Napoleon, he was so anxious to satisfy and 
please others, that those nearest to him were always those 
who could influence him to do what they wanted. He also 
sincerely believed himself, by virtue of his office, to be 
under especial divine guidance. He referred all things to 
God, and then did what those about him persuaded him to 
do. The Jesuit party, which controlled him, received a 
crushing defeat by the election of the next pontiff. 

We have no means of knowing what part Cardinal Pecci 



THE PAPACY. 333 

took in the proceedings of the Council, but we cannot sup- 
pose he endorsed all the propositions in the Syllabus, or 
accepted the decree that subsequently conferred upon him- 
self infallibility. Nevertheless, he has boldly insisted on 
submission to papal authority, and to himself as its repre- 
sentative. In 1885, when he could no longer put up with 
the opposition shown to him by the ultramontane party, he 
addressed a letter to the Archbishop of Paris, defining his 
views as to the duty of submission on the part of the clergy 
to their ecclesiastical superiors, and defining his own views 
of the doctrine of infallibility. 

He enforces obedience and subordination to the chief 
pastor of the Church, saying that " upon these two virtues 
depend the order and life of the Church. They are the 
indispensable conditions for doing right, and arriving hap- 
pily in port." He goes on to say that it is a proof of insin- 
cere submission to the pastor in charge " to establish an 
opposition between sovereign pontiff and sovereign pontiff. 
Those who, in the case of two differing directions, reject the 
present one and hold to the past one, give no proof of 
obedience to the authority which has the right and duty of 
directing them." In fact they are no better than those 
" who after condemnation would appeal to the next council, 
or to a better informed pope." The person to be obeyed 
is the pope for the time being, not a pope who has passed 
away, or a pope who is yet to come. Each pope is " free 
to follow the rule of conduct which he judges best for the 
times and the other circumstances of the case." 

Both Pius IX. and Leo XIII. revived the ancient custom 
of jubilee. The first jubilee began in the year 1299, 
when Dante was present and described the crowding of the 
pilgrims on the bridge of San Angelo. So many pilgrims 
flocked to Rome on that occasion that the jubilee was 
prolonged into the following year. 

"At Christmas of 1299," says an authority, "thousands of 
strangers thronged the churches, and the question arose 
whether it would not be advisable to take advantage of this 
outburst of devotional fervor. After due examination of pre- 



334 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

cedents and consultation with cardinals, the Pope, on the feast 
of St. Peter's Chair. Jan. 18, 1300, solemnly proclaimed the first 
jubilee. — with plenary indulgence for all who during that holy 
year should visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul on 
thirty days, if residents of Rome, on fifteen days if strangers. 
The experiment proved a great success. No less than two 
millions of pilgrims, of all ages and both sexes, and from all 
parts of Europe, are said to have visited Rome during the year, 
and as many as two hundred thousand were constantly to be 
found gathered in the holy city." 

It had been originally intended to restrict the Sacred 
Year to the first year of every century, but subsequently it 
was changed to every fifty years, and then to every thirty- 
three years ; that being the received term of the life of our 
Saviour. The pilgrims brought large offerings to the Holy 
Father, and the papal coffers in these years overflowed. 
Sometimes monarchs were admitted to share the benefit of 
the indulgence without leaving their States. This was the 
case with King John of France, and Richard II. of Eng- 
land. After a while, such indulgences were sold ; as, for 
instance, by the "gentil pardoner, that streyt wes comen from 
the court of Rome," of whom Chaucer writes in the " Canter- 
bury Tales." This practice created great scandal, but was 
reformed by Nicholas V., who held his jubilee in 1450. 

The last jubilee solemnized under the old regime in 
Rome was in 1825, in the reign of Leo XII., when the 
number of pilgrims amounted to four hundred thousand. 
Pio Nono had a jubilee, and Leo XIII. has already had 
two ; one to celebrate his fiftieth year of admission to the 
priesthood : the other his first communion, seventy-five 
years ago. On the first occasion personal gifts from nearly 
all the rulers on the earth flowed into the Vatican. Presi- 
dent Cleveland sent a superbly bound copy of the Consti- 
tution of the United States. Queen Victoria sent a royal 
gift; associations, companies, and private persons brought 
presents to the Pope, as well as offerings in money to his 
treasury. The halls of the Vatican where these presents 
were displayed, are said to have resembled a museum. 

But to return to Pio Nono. His daily life, after he con- 



THE PAPACY. 335 

stituted himself a prisoner in the Vatican, was of the sim- 
plest kind. He was an early riser; at an hour when all 
Rome was asleep, lights were to be seen in the windows of 
the Vatican. Filippiani either died or quitted his master's 
service ; a new attendant named Zangolini succeeded him. 
When dressed and shaved, the Pope remained always alone 
till seven (probably engaged in private devotion), when he 
went to his chapel to hear mass and to celebrate the com- 
munion j it was then that he administered the sacrament to 
foreigners of distinction visiting Rome. Leaving the 
chapel, the Pope went to his breakfast ; a Pope always 
takes his meals alone. Soup, wine, and biscuits were 
served to him. Then he went to his cabinet, where official 
busiuess was daily transacted with Cardinal Antonelli. This 
over, he would read his letters, and look over the papers, till 
it became the hour when he had to give audience. Ladies 
visiting the Vatican must always wear black silk, the head 
covered with a black veil, and no jewelry. Gentlemen 
must be in strict evening costume, with a white cravat. 
The audience over, the Pope would walk with several car- 
dinals, or familiar friends, in the garden of the Vatican, 
when they would tell him, for he dearly loved a dish of 
gossip, all the news of the day. A very simple dinner was 
always served to him ; generally he ate none of it but soup 
and fruit. After dinner came the siesta, after that, personal 
friends visited him in his library, on his way to which Pio 
Nono would bless the mountains of rosaries, chaplets, 
crosses, and scapularies which every day are sent from 
Rome to all parts of the globe. Kindly, genial, and witty, 
as he was, it was not hard to keep him amused. He closed 
the day with religious affairs, with the business of the secre- 
taries of various congregations, and if he had a discourse to 
prepare, this was the time he generally took to do it. 
When at last he went to bed, a prelate would read to 
him, and when he perceived the Pope falling asleep- he 
would drop on his knees and say "Holy Father — your 
benediction ! " Pio Nono would then lift his hand, comply 
with the request, and the day was over. 



336 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

He was a very handsome man in his youth, and retained 
his comeliness even to old age. To his Protestant visitors 
he was always very courteous and invariably produced on 
them a most favorable impression. Englishmen who dur- 
ing the furor about Garibaldi had wished him all sorts of 
evil, in his latter days looked on him as a man who had lost 
a fine property and might be excused and pitied if he 
bemoaned his misfortunes sometimes too loudly. 

His will showed that he left little money behind him. 
He directed that his monument should not cost more than 
five hundred dollars. He left a few legacies, none of them 
exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, to friends, and three 
thousand dollars to be divided among his sen-ants. The 
residue of his estate, barely ten thousand dollars, went to his 
family. But he was rich in relics, which he left to various 
churches, not forgetting a cathedral in Chili where he had 
preached in his missionary days. He had two pieces of the 
true Cross, and one of the Crown of Thorns, besides numer- 
ous relics of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Damaso. 

Barely a month after the death of the first King of Italy, 
he who was (probably) the last pope-king of Rome also 
died. After the death of Cardinal Antonelli, who, in 
homely language, may be said to have had Pio Nono in 
charge for almost thirty years, all things in the Vatican fell 
into confusion. 

" The mind of the aged pontiff was tossed to and fro by a 
perfect tempest of accusations, recriminations, calumnies, and 
innuendoes, raised up around him by the fury of rival factions, so 
that it is scarcely too much to say that, whatever may be the 
degree of papal command over the purgatory in another world, 
it did not, during the last fifteen months of Pio Nono's sojourn 
in this life, exempt him from the experience of something very 
like purgatory here." 

During his early manhood his health was thought too 
delicate to warrant his admission into the Garda Nobile, 
but he lived to a ripe age, being in his eighty-sixth year at the 
time of his death. In his latter years, however, he had 
been so completely prostrated several times by attacks of 



THE PAPACY. 337 

illness that his physicians and attendants had despaired of 
saving him ; but when death came it was at a moment when 
he had been professionally declared to be remarkably well. 
During the months that preceded this event, the question 
that agitated, not only Catholic Christendom, but European 
courts was, Who would be his successor? Some cardinals 
(Cardinal Manning, it is said, among them) urged that the 
Conclave should be held out of Rome, but this was con- 
trary to all precedent, and the cardinals met, not in the 
Quirinal, but in the Vatican, on February 20, 1878. There 
were sixty-two cardinals present, of whom about one-third 
were foreigners. The determination of the body was 
known beforehand to be that the new pontiff must be an 
Italian. 

In thirty-six hours the Conclave had made choice of 
Cardinal Gioacchino Pecci, who had been made cardinal 
camerlingo a few months before. It is not usual for the 
choice of the Conclave to fall on a cardinal ca?nerlingo i so 
that it is possible that this consideration may have guided 
Pio Nono in the appointment. The new Pope was born 
March 10, 1810, the son of Count Ludovico Pecci, a 
nobleman in the papal province of Umbria. He entered 
the Church at eighteen, became a priest at twenty-seven, a 
prelate at twenty-eight, and was at once appointed Dele- 
gate successively of Benevento, Spoleto, and Perugia. He 
was next raised to the rank of Archbishop of Damietta, and 
went to Belgium as nuncio for Gregory XVI. In 1846 he 
was made Archbishop of Perugia, and in 1853 was promoted 
to be a cardinal. 

" He presented in his own person," says the Italian statesman 
Borghi, writing in the " Contemporary Review," " a complete 
and splendid example of what an Italian priest may become 
under favorable circumstances. A member by birth of the 
lesser provincial nobility, a man of good natural capacity, and 
of high culture, an admirable Latin and a good Italian writer, 
devout in spirit and rigidly orthodox in opinion, a sincere and 
entire believer in the past and future of the Church and in the 
importance of its influence on society even in the present day, 

22 



338 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

accustomed to command, familiar with the habits and methods, 
as well as with the international relations, of the court of 
Rome, advancing year by year in experience, in dignity, and in 
authority, — such was Cardinal Pecci." 

He was born at Carpineto, a smoke-blackened little town 
among the Volscian hills, to whose rugged rocks and olive 
gardens his heart returned all his life. The first letter he 
wrote after he had been proclaimed pope was to his 
brothers at Carpineto. 

•• Dear Brothers. — I give you news that the Holy College 
of Cardinals has this morning raised my unworthiness to St. 
Peter's See. This is the first letter I write. It is addressed to 
my relatives, for whom I beg all happiness from Heaven, and 
to whom I lovingly send my episcopal blessing. Pray much for 
me to the Lord. 

'•Leo XIII." 

The house, or castle, as it is called by courtesy, of the 
Pecci family towers above the hamlet of Carpineto. The 
Pecci have been hereditary lords of the district for cen- 
turies. They are considered rich people by their neighbors, 
and were noted for their piety. Gioacchino was the second 
son of his parents, who had seven children. Giuseppe, 
another son, entered the Church as well as Gioacchino. 

As a boy, the future pope gave signs of thoughtful piety. 
He would wander out under the beech and chestnut trees, 
Bible in hand, to study the Scriptures. He early learned 
three valuable rules in life, — orderliness, steadfastness, and 
self-control. When he was eight years of age, he and his 
brother Giuseppe were sent to a school of the Jesuits at 
Viterbo. There he acquired such admirable proficiency in 
the use of the Latin tongue that both his prose writings 
and his poetry in that language are models of elegance. 
Viterbo, where he remained six years, is full of memories of 
past pontiffs, some of whom are buried there. When he 
was fourteen, he was sent to Rome to the College of the 
Jesuits. The first pope he saw was Leo XIL, who had but 
a brief pontificate, ascending the papal throne in 1823. 




POPE LEO XIII. 



THE PAPACY. 339 

The personality of this pope made so deep an impression 
on the young student that he took him as a model for his 
own life, and, in his remembrance of his youthful enthusiasm 
for this pontiff, he took his name when 'he himself was 
called to wear the papal crown. At the age of twenty he 
fell ill, having injured his health by overstudy, and turned 
his attention to poetry, writing an autobiographical account 
of his feelings and experiences in Latin verse. He did not 
anticipate recovery, and in his poem expresses his longing, 
after his brief voyage of life, to steer his bark into an 
everlasting haven. But fulness of years, — years of industry 
and honor, — were in store for him. 

" The success which had attended his career as a legate and 
diplomatist, had, in accordance with the almost invariable prac- 
tice of the Apostolic Court, ensured his promotion to the purple. 
But it was notorious that Gioacchino Pecci was not a man after 
the heart of Pius IX. ; that Cardinal Antonelli distrusted him, 
and that his archbishopric of Perugia was, in fact, an honorable 
exile from the court of Rome. After having represented 
Gregory XVI. for three years at the court of Brussels, to the 
entire satisfaction of King Leopold I., who always entertained 
a high respect for and kindly remembrance of him, he was 
appointed to the see of Perugia, and continued for thirty-two 
years to administer that important diocese in a manner which 
secured the esteem and affection of a population not much 
prone to respect ecclesiastical rulers." 

As Archbishop of Perugia the future pope sat on a seat 
that had been occupied in the past by men whom history 
and legend have proclaimed heroes and martyrs. 

" If he left his episcopal palace for the neighboring Cathedral 
of San Lorenzo, he could pray beside the ashes of three popes, 
one of whom had surpassed all his contemporaries in power and 
energy, — namely Innocent III., who deemed the world too 
small to hold the Church, and who now sleeps his last sleep in 
one single little coffin, in company with two pontiffs of minor 
fame. . . . The nature that surrounded the mountain see of 
Perugia, — how splendid it was ! When the Archbishop gazed 
down into the valley at his feet, clad with vineyards and olive 
groves, his eye could range far away over one of those rich 



340 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

landscapes that fill the soul with yearning. Lost in dreamy 
solitude, Assisi, the city of St. Francis, sits throned on her 
proud height, and many a place is there of which Dante's muse 
has sung. . . . The very air of Umbria seems permeated with 
religious thought; for has it not been the great domain of the 
Romish Church, — the province aptly termed the ' Italian 
Galilee'?" 

The history of Perugia from 1846 to 1878, — the years 
of Cardinal Pecci's episcopate, — is the history of Italy in 
miniature. When he entered on his life there, it formed a 
portion of the States of the Church ; when he left it, it was 
an Italian city, one of the hundred cities of which the 
kingdom of Italy is proud. Naturally, the future pope 
could not go all lengths with the national spirit then awak- 
ening in Italy, but he recognized it as legitimate, so long as 
it was hostile to the "stranger," who was holding the 
peninsula in subjection. 

When, after the defeat of Lamoriciere and his papal 
army at Castelfidardo, Umbria was united to the kingdom 
of Victor Emmanuel, its cardinal-archbishop reaped the 
fruits of the personal good feeling which he had exhibited 
towards the oppressed members of the Liberal party during 
the period from 1849 t0 i860. 

" Men felt grateful for the good he had done, without too 
closely calculating its amount, for they could not refrain from 
bearing in mind all the evil which it had been in his power to 
have performed." 

In 1847, both Pio Nono and Archbishop Pecci had been 
greatly attracted by the book of Vincenzo Gioberti (subse- 
quently a member of the Piedmontese cabinet) on the 
reforms needed in Church government. The book was 
called " II Primato," and was taken to Rome by Cardinal 
Mastai-Ferretti in 1846, to be presented by him to whoever 
should be chosen Pope. Gioberti, whose theory at that 
time was of a federation of the Italian States, was the 
personal friend of Monsignor Pecci, who received him at 
Perugia as his guest. 

A remarkable book published by Father Curci, a Jesuit, 



THE PAPACY. 34I 

made a great stir in 1874 in Rome. Curci had formed the 
acquaintance of the Cardinal- Archbishop of Perugia, during 
one of his brief visits to Rome, and had been on terms of 
considerable intimacy with him. 

Father Curci's pamphlet, which was republished as a 
preface to a translation made by him of the Gospels into 
Italian, not only led to his expulsion from the Society of 
the Jesuits, but brought down on him the indignation 
of Pope Pius, who required him, by way of retractation, to 
sign his assent to three propositions, as fundamental doc- 
trines of the Roman Catholic Church: 1. The speedy re- 
establishment of the temporal power of the popes. 2. The 
duty of all sincere Catholics to abstain from political 
elections. 3. The impossibility of co- existence for the 
Papacy and the kingdom of Italy. 

" These propositions," said Father Curci, " I am resolved 
not to subscribe ; and rather than do so I would be cut to 
pieces. It is high time to recognize the fact that Italian 
unity cannot be broken up ; for, whatever may be the form 
of government destined to rule the country, the nation will 
not consent to be again divided into different fractions. 
Such being the undoubted state of matters, the duty of all 
Catholics is to come forward and play their part in political 
life, unless they are content to see morality and religion go 
to the dogs." 

In consequence of these sentiments, Father Curci was 
subjected to much persecution during the later years of the 
pontificate of Pius IX. Nor did the relations supposed to 
exist between him and the Cardinal Archbishop of Perugia 
tend to make that prelate a favorite at the papal court. 

" In Rome, while Archbishop of Perugia, Cardinal Pecci 
was rarely seen, and very little known or heard of. A few 
months, however, before the death of Pius IX., when he was 
appointed to the high office of camerlingo, he came to 
Rome, where his tall spare figure and homely though kindly 
features were seen in Roman drawing-rooms with a fre- 
quency unusual with his brethren of the Sacred College in 
these latter days." This was thought indeed, by many, to 



342 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

indicate his dissent from the policy of seclusion adopted by 
Pope Pius and his cardinals. When elected by the Con- 
clave (February 20, 1878) and it became his duty to go 
forth and give his first pontifical benediction to the people, 
he was about to proceed, in accordance with immemorial 
custom, to the balcony on the outside of the west front of 
St. Peter's, when those about him hurriedly interfered, 
assuring him that this could not be done ; that all those 
forms were now in abeyance, and that the blessing must be 
given from the interior balcony, looking into the church. 
Leo XIII. yielded, and from that day to this the theory of 
the pope's imprisonment in the Vatican has been main- 
tained. Many think, however, that this would not have 
been the case had it not been for the disgraceful scenes 
that took place when the body of Pio Nono, three and a 
half years after his death, was transferred by night through 
the streets of Rome to its last resting-place in the Church of 
San Lorenzo. Instead of the splendid ceremonies that had 
attended the removal of the bodies of other popes to the 
tombs prepared for them, the funeral services within St. Peter's 
were performed in strict privacy, and the procession outside 
the church was simplicity itself. There was no saluting, no 
tolling of bells, even at St. Peter's, as the bier moved away. 
There were crowds, however, on hand to witness what was 
taking place (it is said one hundred thousand people were 
abroad that night), and the weather was warm and fine. 
The Italian government had offered Italian soldiers to keep 
order in the streets, but this offer was refused. The funeral 
car was drawn by four black horses, — the first pair ridden by 
a postilion wearing a cocked hat, — and it had a lamp at 
each of its corners. Over it was thrown as a pall a red vel- 
vet cloth, which dated from about the year 1200, in the days 
of Innocent III. Beside the car walked priests carrying 
lighted candles. Then followed the carriages of cardinals 
and prelates and members of Catholic associations on foot 
bearing torches. 

From the first there was confusion, there being neither 
soldiers nor police to maintain order ; but at the angle of 



THE PAPACY. 343 

the Castle of St. Angelo a disgraceful scene began, which 
was continued up to the very door of San Lorenzo. A 
group of youths, who at first did not number more than 
fifty or sixty, forced their way among the torch-bearers, 
shouting "Viva V Italia! Down with the priests ! " Some 
even cried, "Throw him into the river ! " but receiving no 
encouragement from the rest of the crowd, who only cried, 
" Canaglia /" they ceased operations till the procession 
entered some narrow streets, when a regular scuffle oc- 
curred. All up the Via Nazionale the same scenes were 
repeated by the same turbulent set. They sang Garibaldi's 
hymn to drown the prayers, and not infrequently gave, or 
accepted fights with the bystanders. At last the military 
had to be called out, for the mob was pelting the carriages. 
With difficulty the coffin was got into the church of San Lo- 
renzo, and the mob was finally dispersed. 1 But it is little 
wonder that since that day Leo XIII. has renounced all 
inclination or intention of exhibiting to the Romans a live 
pope in their streets, surrounded by the pomp and majesty 
befitting his position. The government has guaranteed 
protection to his person, but to invoke that protection 
would be to acknowledge the authority of the Italian gov- 
ernment : besides which, as earnest Catholics would drop 
on their knees as he passed, the roughs and scum of the 
city (unrestrained by the civil authority, which, as I have 
said, the Pope would not willingly call to his help), would 
doubtless ill-treat and molest them. So Leo XIII. has ever 
since remained firm in his determination to continue a 
prisoner in the Vatican, not even going (I believe) in 
the unhealthy season to the Villa Gondolfi, which was 
guaranteed to him as a retreat from Roman malaria. The 
bitterness with which he spoke of the cruel insults offered 
to the remains of his predecessor, in an allocution he put 
forth a week after the funeral, and certain words addressed 
a few months earlier to Cardinal Lavaletta, vicar-general of 
Rome, on the subject of the unbridled insults showered on 

1 This account is that of an eye-witness, who sent it at the time to 
the " St. James's Gazette." 



344 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the Catholic religion by the press, and what he considered 
the indecent erection of Protestant chapels within the walls of 
Rome " raised by the gold of Bible societies," — are almost 
the only indignant utterances of Leo XIII. His mission 
has been one of peace and conciliation. 

One of his first acts was to revive the authority of the 
Sacred College, — that is, the body of cardinals, which in 
theory, was the privy council of the Pope. Many persons 
seemed to think that this act of invoking advice and assist- 
ance from his brethren of the Sacred College would limit 
his authority, and obstruct him in carrying out his own 
views. Apparently this has not been the case. The car- 
dinals, with few exceptions, have rarely opposed him. 

It is impossible not to acknowledge the marvellous spread 
of this pope's personal influence. Relieved from the em- 
barrassments of his position as a petty Italian ruler, he has 
found compensation in becoming virtually the foremost 
standard-bearer of Christianity throughout the world. When 
he speaks, — and he speaks frequently, — he speaks as one 
having authority. Whether, as Protestants, we accept what 
he says or not, we ponder his words. They have weight 
with us, not only from his official position, but from his 
earnestness, his wisdom, his large-mindedness, and his piety. 
No longer a pope-king, he holds, as spiritual head of his 
ancient Church, a position with reference to the world at large 
such as none of his predecessors have held for centuries. He 
has effected reconciliation between foreign States and the 
Catholic Church, in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, 
and Russia. He has extended his influence in South Amer- 
ica and into Eastern lands. Towards the two great Repub- 
lics, France and the United States, his tone is always that 
of " high consideration." We all know with what interest 
his views are read, when he gives them to the world, on 
socialism, family life, marriage, and the relations of em- 
ployers and employed. He is effecting a great change in 
the sentiments of devout Protestants towards the religion of 
which he is the head. The Church unity of which he has been 
said to dream in England can surely never be accomplished, 



THE PAPACY. 345 

since Papal authority has never been submissively accepted 
by Englishmen ever since England became a nation. But 
unity in Church government and the unity of feeling that 
binds together devout Christians — all who fulfil the defini- 
tion of Church unity laid down by Saint Paul, " those who 
love the Lord Jesus Christ with sincerity " — have been 
largely promoted by what the world knows of Leo XIII. 
No doubt, as Dr. Watts tells us, — 

" One army of the living God, 
At His command we bow," 

but that army is divided into brigades and regiments. 
Unity may consist in the whole army fighting one enemy, 
in all struggling to attain one end ; yet the officers and 
men of each regiment may at the same time be zealous for 
its discipline and its honor ; nay, may even have firm faith 
in the superiority of its efficiency. 

One great difficulty in Pope Leo's way has been the nar- 
rowness of his income. The three million and a half of 
francs guaranteed to the Pope by the Italian kingdom, 
neither Pope Pius nor Pope Leo has been willing to receive. 
The financial deficiency in the days of the former was made 
up by the revival of the old custom of Peter's Pence, and 
for a time much money flowed into Pio Nono's coffers. 
By degrees, however, the amount fell off, and, a few years 
since, not only gross mismanagement of the fund, but pec- 
ulation and embezzlement were discovered at the Vatican. 
Leo XIII. himself is a very poor man. A few years after 
his elevation one of his nephews was about to be married, 
and craved his assistance. The Pope had nothing to give 
him • but he borrowed a thousand crowns, and then made 
over to his relatives his small patrimony, telling them that 
it was all he had, and that even after his death they could 
expect no more from him. 

In June, 1881, Father Curci published another book, — 
La Nuova Italia ed i Vecchi Zelanti, — in which the opin- 
ions expressed in his former work were set forth at greater 
length, and with greater urgency. The history of this book 



346 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

and of its author is somewhat curious, and may deserve a 
little space in this brief sketch, into which so many and 
great things have to be crowded. 

Father Curci, as we have seen, was expelled from the 
order of the Jesuits after the publication of his first 
pamphlet : but he trusted that under the new pontirT his 
views, which he knew in a great measure coincided with 
those of Leo XIII., would be better received. He was also 
personally acquainted with Cardinal Giuseppe Pecci, the 
elder brother of the Pope, who had been made librarian 
of the Vatican. Giuseppe Pecci had himself been a mem- 
ber of the Society of Jesus, but had quitted it on account 
of some diversity of views. A storm having arisen on the 
publication of the Nuova Italia ed i Vecchi Zelanti, Father 
Curci was advised to go into retirement for a time, and 
preparations were made for his retreat in the Basilian mon- 
astery of Grotta Ferrata. But, under pressure, the Superior 
at the last moment refused to receive him. The Pope, on 
learning this, allowed Cardinal Pecci to offer him hospital- 
ity in his own apartments at the Vatican. During his stay 
there Father Curci had several interviews with the pontirT, 
who, while Archbishop of Perugia, had purchased a number 
of copies of his former work for distribution. Father Curci 
earnestly upheld the necessity for the reconciliation of 
Rome with constitutional Italy, believing that the Pope's 
duty as a Christian and a priest was to submit himself to 
the " powers that be, as ordained of God." 

The Pope was vehemently urged to condemn the views of 
Father Curci, and that immediately. His only answer was, 
" There is a Congregation whose business it is to see into 
and judge this. It is for them to do their duty." The body 
referred to was the Congregation of the Index, whose office 
it is to pronounce whether a book is heretical, not whether 
it is good or bad. The passage selected for attack was one 
that spoke of the doctrine of Infallibility as a stumbling-block 
placed in the way of the spread of the gospel, and affirmed 
that the Council which decreed it had been deprived of liberty 
of discussion and decision. The Congregation did not find 



THE PAPACY. 347 

anything heretical in the book, but declared that they were 
incompetent to pronounce judgment on it. The matter was 
then referred to the Inquisition, which gives no reasons for 
what it says or does ; and with little delay the book was 
condemned as a libel on the Church and Holy See. The 
sentence was forthwith submitted to the Pope, who, to 
avoid a serious schism in the Church, was forced to sign it. 

It must have been terribly painful to Leo XIII. when he 
found himself compelled to acquiesce in the condemnation 
of a book with which he in the main agreed ; but he was 
angered at the moment by the insults offered in Rome to 
the corpse of Pio Nono, and had come to the decision that 
the relations between the Papacy and the kingdom of Italy, 
as established by Pio Nono, must be maintained. A year 
later, however, he put forth a remarkable encyclical. After 
severely criticising those " wicked ones who declare war 
against Christ, and endeavor to rob the people of their 
Christian privileges," he goes on to reprove the clergy for 
not having done their duty as teachers ; and then, without 
openly combating Pio Nono's dictum of ne eletti ne elettori, 
he allows it to be plainly perceived that he thinks it the 
duty of true Catholics to take part at least in the municipal 
elections. He urges Catholics to make use of the press, 
and, far from re-echoing Pio Nono's condemnation of all 
progress, all advancement in science and civilization, he 
calls upon priests to cultivate sound learning, " embracing 
not only sacred, but philosophical, physical, and historical 
studies." " Besides graver studies," he says, " young 
clerics should be instructed in other branches of knowledge, 
which cannot be fitly ignored at the present day, — such as 
natural science, and whatever serves to illustrate the author- 
ity and interpretation of Holy Scripture." In short, the 
encyclical seemed to prepare the way for the withdrawal of 
the self-denying ordinance by which Pius IX. deliberately 
placed the voting urns at the permanent and exclusive dis- 
posal of his assailants. 

Leo XIII. is an earnest disciple of the Angelical Doctor, 
Saint Thomas Aquinas, the schoolman loved and praised 



348 TALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

by Dante ; and he not only has urged the study of his 
writings and those of his followers, but he has founded an 
institution of learning especially for that purpose, and de- 
voted some money that came into his hands by way of gift 
to the publication of a superb edition of his writings. Leo 
XIII. is said to know all Dante by heart. His knowledge, 
too, of history and general literature is varied and profound, 
as may be seen in the quotations he makes in his encycli- 
cals. His use of Latin is said to be most elegant, and 
a rather large volume of his verses has been published. 
These are written chiefly in Latin. He is not the only 
pontiff who has been a poet. Leo the Great in the fifth 
century, Gregory I. (though he despised pedantic learn- 
ing), and Gregory VII., the great Hildebrand, all wrote 
verses. Pius II. received the Laureate's crown from one 
of the German Emperors, while Urban II. used, it is said, 
to put off business to be transacted with his cardinals till 
they had given him their opinion of his latest sonnet. 
About two years ago Pope Leo sent to a friend, who was 
about to attain his ninetieth birthday, some verses which he 
had written on his own advancing age. They were this 
time in Italian, soft and sweet, to which justice can hardly 
be done in a translation. 

" The sinking sun, descending into night, 
Sheds on thee, Leo, its last rays of light. 

" In thy dulled veins the blood creeps day by day 
Slowly, — more slowly, — as life ebbs away. 

" Death casts his dart ; thy mortal form, when cold, 
Earth shall receive, the funeral shroud enfold. 

" But from its prison thy glad soul shall rise, 
Stretch wide its wings, and, soaring, seek the skies. 

" Then, when life's long, hard road has all been trod, 
Ah, if it be Thy blessed will, O God, 

" Grant me — if counted worthy of Thy grace — 
In Thy most blessed heaven to see Thy face ! " 



CHAPTER XVII. 

BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 

HPHE tendency to organize into secret societies was 
-*• always strong in Italy. Before the Christian era, in 
the days when the Senate at Rome ruled the world, its 
power was insufficient to induce members of such societies 
to reveal secrets they had made oath to keep ; while in 
after years the emperors were " fain to wink at what they 
would not sanction and could not extirpate." Subse- 
quently, wherever the Romans founded colonies, they 
established clubs and associations de sodaliciis et collegiis, 
having their own by-laws, officers, and organizations, which, 
if they did not break the laws of the State, frequently took 
occasion to circumvent them. In the Middle Ages men in 
cities formed themselves into guilds, honored and accepted 
institutions ; but the idea was taken up by what we call the 
"dangerous classes," and turned to their own purposes. 
Italians have always had a talent for conspiracy, and the 
stronghold of a conspiracy is the secret society to which it 
belongs. " There is," said Massimo d'Azeglio, " some in- 
stinct of civil war in the heart of every Italian." When an 
Italian's political aspirations have no outlet in that direc- 
tion, he is quite ready to embark on a little illegal warfare 
to forward his own social, commercial, or criminal purposes. 
Even to the present day these secret societies protect their 
members against the operation of the laws of the State ; for 
in the courts the odds are that juries and judges will be 
always in their favor. " If," says a leading newspaper in 
Rome (October 26, 1879), "a member of such a society 



350 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

commits a crime, his associates defend him by manufactured 
evidence, intrigues, or intimidation." 

Italy is a difficult country to make laws for. The laws of 
justice which do well for the orderly Lombards or Piedmon- 
tese, by no means suit the semi-barbarians of Apulia and 
Sicily. Philanthropy abolished the death-penalty for mur- 
der, and substituted for it imprisonment for fifteen years. 
The number of victims at once increased, nor did the law 
result in length of days to the murderers, the police shoot- 
ing down suspected criminals on any excuse. And we are 
told that "whenever a crime has been committed, even 
before the circumstances are known, the sympathies of 
the community are invariably enlisted on the side of the 
accused." 

But it is in the old kingdom of the Two Sicilies that the 
operations of secret societies may be best observed ; and 
there, too, brigandage long existed in force, notwithstanding 
the persistent endeavors of the government to put it down. 
The two principal societies in the province of Naples are 
the Camorra and the Mafia ; the latter, however, is the 
most powerful in Sicily. The Camorra is said at one time 
to have been divided (some say it is still) into the Camorra 
alta, or, as it was sometimes called, "the Camorra in kid 
gloves," and the Camorra bassa. The Camorra alta busied 
itself chiefly with elections and jobbery, using, when vio- 
lence was needed, members of the Camorra bassa as its 
tools. It was in full force as late as 1877, and boasted of 
the control it could exert over elections. 

The Camorra bassa is well supplied with funds levied 
upon the peasants, who bring their produce into the cities 
(in addition to the unpopular legal gate tax on eggs, vege- 
tables, etc.). Large sums are also paid to the society by 
all sorts of men and women, who find protection for illegal 
modes of life by numbering themselves among its clientele ; 
especially does it claim a portion of the winnings of any 
of its members at the gaming table, — leading us to the 
conclusion that the Camorra originated in Spain, since 
Sancho Panza banished from his island a band of rascals 



BRIG AND A GE AND SE CRE T SO CIE TIES. 3 5 I 

who claimed a similar right to take toll of his subjects' 
winnings. 

The Mafia is a less organized society than the Camorra. 
It has no entrance initiation, and no visible head. It has, 
however, many secret maxims, which are to be learned by 
heart by each new member. Here are some of them : 
" The poor resort to force ; fools have recourse to law. — 
Take the life of whoever makes you lose the means of liv- 
ing. — Be respectful to officers of the law, but stand afar 
off. — If I die, I shall be buried ; if I live, you will be. — 
Of what does not concern you, say neither good nor ill. — 
If needful, bear witness ; but take heed that what you 
testify does no harm to your neighbor. — He that dies 
is buried ; he ' that lives gets married. — An influential 
friend is worth more than a thousand lire in your pockets. 
— Imprisonment, sickness, and misfortune test the hearts 
of friends." 

The idea of such associations as the Camorra and the 
Mafia (frequently classed together under the general name 
of Mala Vita, — that is, " Evil Life ") was to form a State 
within the State, — a State having its own rulers, its own 
code, its own power of punishment, its own finances ; a 
State framed in the interest of evil-doers, and which forbade 
its members under any circumstances to have recourse to 
the laws of the land. " The true Mafiosi are polished vil- 
lains. They assume towards their enemy the language and 
bearing of fraternal good-humor, and write the most threat- 
ening letters in terms of bland politeness." The keynote of 
of the whole alliance is omerta, — a word derived, some say, 
from uomo, or omo, — that is, "man," — the leading principle 
of the order being that a man must depend on himself for all 
he needs (support, justice, etc.), without regard to the laws 
of society. Some, however, think that the word omerta is 
derived from " humility," — an explanation that finds support 
both in the assumed humility of the Mafiosi, and also in the 
terms of the oath by which they bind themselves " to make 
war upon the infamous [that is, those who have property] , 
and to protect the humble." License to rob is given to all 



352 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

members ; but they are expected to divide the spoils with 
their associates. 

Brigandage (" old as the hills " in Southern Italy) allies 
itself more or less with the societies of the Mala Vita ; but 
it was of itself, up to twenty years ago, a recognized insti- 
tution. Early in the century it existed in the peninsula, 
principally in the mountains of Calabria and Apulia. It 
flourished under Italian princes, — the Pope and the kings 
of Naples ; but the parts of Italy that were more directly 
under Austrian rule were comparatively free from it. In 
1 8 1 7 there were said to be seventy thousand brigands, or their 
secret accomplices, in one province of the kingdom of Na- 
ples alone ; and their chief had a plan of uniting all brig- 
ands into an army, marching against the king's troops, and 
making terms with the Bourbon government. 

Under these circumstances, King Ferdinand employed an 
English gentleman — General Church — to do his best, with a 
strong force of carbineers, to put the brigands down. Gen- 
eral Church's narrative of his extraordinary adventures while 
endeavoring to carry out this mission was published in 
"Blackwood's Magazine," in 1892, 1 by a surviving relative. 
Unfortunately, General Church's interesting reminiscences 
cannot, for want of space, be given here. 

The brigand chief against whom he was especially em- 
ployed was Ciro Annichiarico. This man was a priest, and 
sometimes exercised the functions of his priesthood in the 
midst of his bloody exploits. We hear of his celebrating 
mass before starting on his wild expeditions, and he com- 
plained of the mission priests that they did not preach the 
pure gospel, but disseminated illiberal opinions among the 
peasantry. At the same time he was cruel, sparing neither 

1 Also in Miss Yonge's " Monthly Packet." When I was a child — 
say in 1830 — the number of children's books published was small. One 
of my chief favorites was " The Stories of Old Daniel." Old Daniel 
was supposed to have been the body servant of an English officer, 
who travelled, in search of health, into all parts of southern Europe. 
His narratives were manifestly genuine reminiscences. A great many 
related to Italian brigands ; and in nearly all of these a priest and a 
landlord bore chief parts, either as accomplices or leaders. — E. W. L. 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 353 

age nor sex ; his life was openly immoral, and he boasted of 
his infidel opinions. " He was," says General Church, " a 
good horseman and a capital shot j strong and vigorous as 
a tiger, and equally ferocious. His countenance was bad ; 
he had large features, a very ordinary face, never without a 
sinister expression, quite unlike the manly countenance of 
Don Gaetano Vardarelli (another brigand chief, also a 
priest) . Ciro had friends and protectors in all the towns 
and villages of the province of Lecce, and had the effrontery 
at times to show himself in broad daylight, apparently unac- 
companied. He was a perfect Proteus in disguises, — as a 
woman, as a beggar, as a priest, as a friar, as an officer, as a 
gendarme. His usual dress was of velveteen, highly faced with 
many rows of buttons, and belts in every direction ; and he was 
always armed with pistols and stiletto, carbine, or rifle. He 
always carried poison with him in a small case, within a red 
pocket-book. He also always wore several silver chains, to 
one ot which was attached a silver death's-head, the badge 
of the secret society (the Decisi) which he had founded, 
and of which he was the recognized head, — that terrible 
society whose first condition for admission into its ranks was 
that the candidate must have committed two murders with 
his own hand, and whose decrees and patents were written 
in blood. On his breast he wore rows of relics, crosses, 
images of saints, and amulets against the evil eye. His 
headdress was a high-peaked drab-colored hat, adorned 
with gold band, buckle, and tall black feather, and his 
fingers were covered with rings of great value." 

Ciro was born of well-to-do parents, respectable people 
of the farming class, who early destined him for the priest- 
hood. His first murder was that of a young girl who had 
repelled his advances, being betrothed to a fellow-towns- 
man. This man he also murdered, together with his sister 
and his three brothers. The only member of the family he 
left alive was a little boy, who was hidden away by a faith- 
ful servant in his own desolate house, and who grew up 
there, barred and bolted in, for fifteen years, never stirring 
beyond the door. One day a party came in broad daylight 

23 



354 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

to the house, knocking, and clamorously calling on him to 
admit them. He shrank back, fearing a snare. At last, 
however, he was persuaded to come forth into the light, 
which dazzled and bewildered him, and was taken by his 
friends to the city gate, where the head of his enemy was 
shown to him, hung up in an iron cage. He stood dazed at 
first, then falling on his knees, with tears and wild laughter, 
he thanked the Madonna and the saints ; then rushed off to 
General Church's quarters, to thank him too. 

Ciro's most notorious crime was committed on a night 
in December, 1814, and led to the employment of General 
Church with orders to extirpate him. 

A young and amiable princess lived in the strong castle 
of Martano, apparently without a male protector, though 
she had faithful servants. Late one night a traveller pre- 
sented himself at the gates, asking hospitality for his excel- 
lency the commandant of the province, who had been 
belated on his way to Otranto. The moment the gates 
were opened, a large body of horsemen poured into the 
courtyard, and some, dismounting, followed their leader 
into the hall. The old steward was stabbed as he came 
forward hospitably to receive the unexpected guests. Every 
other man-servant was swiftly murdered. None were spared, 
not even the white-haired chaplain, nor an old lady the 
princess's duenna, nor her waiting-women. Then Ciro 
made his way to the chamber of the princess, cut down a 
maid who stood before her door, and entered. He de- 
manded a sum of money that she was known to have in the 
house. She pointed to an iron chest that stood near. He 
asked, " Where are the keys?" 

" On the table by the chimney-piece." 

" Where are your jewels? " 

" In a small box on that table." 

" Have you any others? " 

" Not in this house." 

" Very well. Then allow me to examine them." 

He opened the chest, which contained thirty-six thousand 
gold louis ; then he opened the jewel-case. It was full of 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 355 

sparkling gems. He closed the box, and, crying fiercely, 
" Philosophers tell us that dead dogs cannot bite," he 
stabbed the princess and a second maid with his po- 
niard. Then the brigands feasted in the hall, and, after 
some quarrelling about the division of the spoils, departed, 
setting fire to the furniture in the great hall, and carefully 
closing the gates, so that no passer-by might suspect that 
there was anything wrong within. They thought that 
every soul in the castle had been murdered. They were 
mistaken. A small boy, cousin of the princess, had run 
into her room, and had hidden himself under a table 
covered with thick drapery. After seeing his cousin fall, 
he fainted, but came to life again, and found the castle full 
of smoke. Active as a cat, he got out of a window, and 
made his way into the town that was clustered under the 
castle wall. Here he roused the syndic and the townsmen. 
The only creature found alive in the castle was one of the 
maidservants, who lived just long enough to depose to 
what had happened. 

Giro's activity was as astonishing as his artifice and his 
intrepidity ; and as he was always well mounted, and found 
concealment and support everywhere, through fear or in- 
clination, he succeeded in escaping from the soldiers 
repeatedly, even when confidential spies had discovered 
his place of concealment only a few hours before. This 
singular good fortune acquired for him the character of a 
magician, and he neglected nothing that would confirm 
this idea. 

After General Church commenced his campaign, Ciro 
complained bitterly that he could no longer corrupt the 
soldiers sent against him. " I have tried," he said, " but 
to no purpose. Even the gendarmes, half of whom are 
Carbonari, are my bitter foes now that this Englishman has 
come into Apulia." He was taken at last and shot, Febru- 
ary 8, 1818, after the formality of a trial, which General 
Church insisted on. The soldiers maintained that he could 
be killed only with a silver bullet ; and as he stirred on the 
ground after he fell, one who had prepared a silver bullet, 



356 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

rammed it into the criminal's own carbine, and sent it 
through his body. " How many murders have you com- 
mitted with your own hand? " was asked him after his trial. 
He answered carelessly, "Sixty or seventy." 

Such was brigandage in the kingdom of Naples up to the 
year 1818. We may now see what it was in the States of 
the Church at a somewhat later period, when the present 
Pope, Leo XIII., was sent as papal delegate into the 
province of Benevento, which, " although it formed part 
of the States of the Church, was wholly inclosed within 
the territory of Naples. There, cut off from the central 
authority, situated among the Apennines, and remote from 
any of the great lines of communication, the little province 
formed the headquarters of the brigands who infested the 
neighboring Roman and Neapolitan territory. The ease 
with which malefactors could slip across the frontier, 
together with the lawless propensities of the feudal nobles 
of the country, rendered the task of governing it an ex- 
tremely difficult one. The owners of the castles among the 
hills found it easier and more profitable to live on good 
terms with the brigands than to side with the pontifical 
authority against them. They audaciously claimed for 
their mountain fortresses immunity from the authority of 
the magistrates, and afforded to the brigands an inviolable 
asylum ; and these lawless feudal nobles were supported by 
very powerful friends at Rome. 

• "The new delegate began by obtaining from Gregory 
XVI. a very capable man as head of the civil force in the 
province. He then procured from Naples orders to the 
Neapolitan police authorities on the frontier to support him 
to the utmost of their power. Thus prepared, he sent a 
force of gendarmes to one of the hill castles, in which 
several brigands were known to have taken refuge, seized 
them, and safely lodged them in prison. The owner of the 
residence thus violated was one of the most powerful men 
of the province. On the morrow he visited the delegate 
in the city of Benevento, and with extreme anger intimated 
that he was on his way to Rome, whence he should soon 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 357 

return with an order for Monsignor Pecci's recall. 'That 
you can do, Signor Marchese,' said Pecci quietly, ' but you 
must put off your journey for three months, since I am 
going to put you in prison for that period, during which I 
shall give you only bread and water.' And he was to the 
letter as good as his word. He was thanked by Gregory 
XVI. ; he was invited to Naples to receive the expression 
of King Ferdinand's approbation, and Benevento was, for 
the time, cleared of brigands." 

Not long since there was published in Florence (1892) a 
small pamphlet, being the autobiography of Colonel Michele 
Zambelli, 1 who, during thirty-two years of active service in 
the gendarmeria of the Papal States, was the scourge of 
banditti, and the most active uprooter of the secret 
societies with which they associated themselves. His 
work lay in Romagna, where the peasantry are a bold 
and handsome race, with considerable natural intelligence 
and great activity. Impetuous, quick-tempered, and ex- 
citable, they are more governed by their emotions than 
their reason. They are kindly and considerate to the old 
and to women, and remarkably affectionate to their children. 
The autobiography of this Italian Inspector Byrnes is very 
brief, but it contains material out of which a literary 
workman of the "blood and thunder" school might con- 
struct a dozen dime novels. Yet Romagna has no world- 
wide reputation as the especial habitat of the Italian 
brigand. 

Stories of Italian brigandage and secret associations were 
so long stock properties belonging to a certain class of 
writers that we are apt always to class them with sensa- 
tional fiction. There is no sensational writing, however, in 
the little narrative of Colonel Zambelli. It is a simple 
chronicle of facts connected with his experience. The 
gendarmeria to which he belonged is a body of police, 
uniformed and under military discipline. In France the 
police service is divided into two branches, — agents of 

1 I made a translation of a portion of this narrative, which 
appeared in the New York " Sun." — E. W. L. 



358 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

police, who are organizers and detectives, having mouchards 
(or spies) under them ; and gendarmes, who do active 
police work, make arrests, and maintain order. In Italy, 
at least during the days of which Colonel Zambelli writes, 
the gendarmes, or carbineers, seem to have united both 
these functions. If an organized band of brigands infested 
any district, a trusted officer of gendarmes, like Zambelli, 
was sent to take up his quarters in its chief town, with 
orders to extirpate the band or the secret society, and 
bring to justice all aiders and abettors of the same. Appar- 
ently no warrants were necessary. Shooting at sight seems 
to have superseded the ordinary course of law ; indeed, on 
one or two occasions, Zambelli excuses himself for prompt 
measures by saying that criminals, if taken to prison, might 
have escaped through the meshes of the law, or by the law's 
delays. 

The father of Michele Zambelli had been a soldier under 
Napoleon, and his tales of adventure so stimulated a mar- 
tial spirit in his family that all his sons became soldiers. 
Michele, the youngest, tells us that he dreamed of battles 
from his infancy; and finding that his father meant to 
retain his services at home, he ran away to enlist when 
fifteen years old. Crossing a mountain range, he came 
near losing his life in a snowstorm ; but at last, by following 
some mule-tracks he reached a hospice, where the brothers 
treated him with every kindness, — " gratefully remember- 
ing which," he tells us, " I have never omitted, when 
fortune smiled on me, to give to the Capuchins abundant 
alms." His enlistment took place in 1831, when all Italy 
was in the throes of that abortive revolution in which 
Napoleon Louis and Louis Napoleon took part. 

The first raid against any noted malefactor in which 
Zambelli was engaged was in 1832, when a brigand named 
Cavalli was secreted with a small band of followers in the 
Apennines, and harried the neighboring villages. A mov- 
able column of soldiers had been hunting these outlaws for 
some months ; but one day, when Private Zambelli was 
going, unaccompanied by any of his comrades, to a town 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 359 

in the district to draw the pay of his company, he received 
information that Cavalli was hidden in a neighboring mill. 
The young soldier endeavored to persuade the villagers to 
assist in arresting him, but their dread of retribution was too 
great. " I knew," says Zambelli, " that Cavalli had a gun 
with which he had been shooting little birds, then roast- 
ing in the miller's kitchen. He was also in possession of 
a sabre and a pistol. I hastened to the place, and from a 
loop-hole I could see the bandit in the stable. I made a 
sudden spring, and was so quickly upon him that he had 
no chance to use his weapons. For this arrest the govern- 
ment awarded me a silver medal, which I received with 
great satisfaction." 

Two years later, hearing that a district called Saluduchio, 
in the province of Forli, was infested by two bands of ban- 
ditti, Zambelli asked to be transferred to that new field of 
activity. In three months he had arrested three murderers, 
who made a dogged resistance. This broke up one band ; 
but not long afterwards he was secretly informed that the 
other, which consisted of seven robbers, besides many who 
aided and abetted them, had formed a scheme to plunder 
the residence of a rich proprietor. Their leader was a man 
named Buratone, an escaped convict under sentence of 
close confinement for ten years. At midnight, Zambelli and 
two carbineers under his orders repaired to the house that 
was to be attacked, and waited some time before the ruffians 
arrived. These at once broke down the door. The carbi- 
neers sprang into their midst, and a rough-and-tumble fight 
ensued, at the end of which the carbineers, though victori- 
ous, had only made two prisoners, — one of whom was the 
chief, who was mortally wounded. His capture, however, 
was of great importance, for, out of revenge for the desertion 
of his band, he gave them all up to justice. By dawn they 
were arrested and marched to the nearest prison, amid the 
wildest exclamations of satisfaction on the part of the peas- 
antry, half of whom, in spite of these demonstrations, were 
probably more or less accomplices. Among those arrested 
was a miller in good circumstances and highly respected by 



360 ITALY IN THE XIXETEEXTH CENTURY. 

his neighbors. Zambelli's reward for this sendee was a very 
large silver medal. 

In 1840 Zambelli was in command of a considerable 
number of men. He was secretly informed that a band of 
armed outlaws, the boldest rascals in Romagna, was in the 
vicinity of the town of Civitella, engaged in transporting 
contraband merchandise of great value. " I had only three 
men with me at the moment," he says in his narrative," all 
the rest having been detached from my command by a cer- 
tain tobacco inspector, ostensibly to assist him in a search 
for illicit salt-works in the hills. Later I found that this 
inspector had an understanding with the banditti, whose 
chief had paid him to get my carbineers out of the way. I 
also discovered that other soldiers in the district had been 
tampered with, as well as the revenue officers." 

With his three men, Zambelli planned and executed a 
successful ambuscade ; a sharp fight followed. The night 
was very dark. Only the flashes of light from their firearms 
revealed the combatants to one another. The muleteers in 
alarm cut the girths that bound the burdens on their mules, 
and, mounting them, made off, consulting only their own 
safety. Four outlaws, two mules, and goods to the value of 
eight thousand dollars were captured. Then six other 
bandits, believing themselves to be surrounded by soldiers, 
surrendered : but the greater part of the band made their 
escape. For this sendee Zambelli received a gold medal. 

He seems also to have been employed in putting down 
revolutionary movements in Romagna when Italy became 
agitated in 1845. Early in the following year he was sent 
to Imola, where the Cardinal- Archbishop Mastai received 
him with great kindness. Cardinal Mastai won praise, even 
from his enemies. Felice Orsini, the man who threw 
bombs at the Emperor Napoleon III., speaks of him thus : 
w He was charitable : his character was unspotted ; no one 
could say a word against his morality. He was handsome, 
studious, and retiring, but he had also all the preju- 
dices of his caste." When, after the death of Gregory 
XVI., Cardinal Mastai journeyed to Rome to attend the 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 36 1 

Conclave, Zambelli with his carbineers wanted to escort 
him \ but the cardinal declined his services, and went ac- 
companied only by his own people, and by the famous 
white pigeon which persistently followed him to the end of 
his journey. 

When Cardinal Mastai became Pio Nono, one of his first 
acts was to make Zambelli a lieutenant, and to order that 
his son Paulo, then three years of age, should be admitted 
into his own bodyguard with pay and privileges till he be- 
came twenty-one, when he would receive a commission as 
an officer. 

Zambelli tells several stories illustrating the abject fear 
which men in authority felt of the vengeance likely to fall 
on them if they interfered with the operations of the ban- 
ditti. He put them to shame, however, and was rewarded 
for his successful exertions by official congratulations and 
public dinners. At Sinigaglia he put down a band called 
La Macchia, or the Bewitched, who had just murdered both 
the Marquis Consolini and a poor old man recently released 
from prison in virtue of the Pope's amnesty. The Macchia 
vowed to take Zambelli's life, but only succeeded in 
wounding him. 

The troubles that convulsed Italy in 1846-47 produced 
such general social anarchy that little could be done to put 
down murderers and robbers. Zambelli and his carbineers 
were therefore transferred to Rome. He was there when 
Count Rossi was murdered, but not on duty in that part of 
the city. When the Republic was proclaimed he retired 
from active service, but resumed his old position when the 
authority of Pio Nono was restored. With the assistance 
of a band of Austrian soldiers, he scaled the walls of Montu- 
rano, a small 'fortified city which had been taken possession 
of by robbers ; and having taken the precaution to bring a 
judge along with him on this expedition, thirty robbers 
whom he captured were condemned before nightfall and 
marched to prison. 

But the most celebrated bandit with whom he measured 
his strength was Stefano Pelloni, better known as the Ferry- 



362 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

man (77 Passato?-e) . The most celebrated exploit of this 
man was the capture of the town of Forlimpopoli. He had 
accomplices within its walls who kept him informed of the 
movements, habits, and circumstances of the principal 
inhabitants. There were only six carbineers at that time in 
Forlimpopoli. Two patrolled the streets ; two stayed in the 
guardroom ; and two were stationed at the theatre. At 
dusk the band of outlaws entered the little walled town, 
once defended by a now ruined castle built by Caesar 
Borgia. They came in quietly by different gates, but 
uniting at a preconcerted spot, surprised and captured the 
patrol so quietly that no alarm was given. They then 
marched to the barracks, and obliged their prisoners to call 
out their two comrades, who the moment they appeared 
were also captured. The four were then fast bound, and 
left under guard in their own quarters. The rest of the 
band of outlaws then went to the theatre, where a large part 
of the population of Forlimpopoli seems to have been assem- 
bled. Several of them contrived to reach the side scenes ; 
others quietly captured the two gendarmes on duty. When 
the curtain rose, it disclosed, with fine dramatic effect, the 
Passatore and ten of his men upon the stage with guns in 
their hands. The audience fancied at first sight that it was 
part of the play, and vehemently applauded ; but when a 
voice exclaimed, " I am the Passatore ! I am master of 
your city. Here are its keys. I have locked the gates. 
Let no one move. This theatre is surrounded by my men," 
— an indescribable panic seized the spectators. The cap- 
tain then producing a list of the wealthiest inhabitants pro- 
ceeded to read it, ordering each person, as his name was 
called, to come up on the stage. Each man was then 
escorted to his home, where he was forced to find the ran- 
som for which the Passatore had assessed him. These 
sums amounted in all to about ten thousand dollars in 
money and jewels. The robbers likewise attempted to 
force open the safe of the Mont de Pi£te, but could not 
succeed in doing so. They held possession of the town for 
about three hours, during which time no man was suffered 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 363 

to leave the theatre, except those sent forth under guard. 
They had thus all the well-to-do population in their power, 
while the lower class did nothing to oppose them. The 
mail-carrier from Rome arrived at the gate during their 
occupation, and was informed that the key of the gate had 
been mislaid, and that to avoid delay he had better throw 
his mail-bag over the wall. He did so without suspicion, 
and went on his journey. No sooner was he well out of the 
way than the brigands beat a retreat, carrying with them 
the six gendarmes as prisoners. About two miles from the 
town they turned the gendarmes loose, and the band made 
their escape in safety. Two of their accomplices in the 
town were discovered, tried by court-martial, and shot. 
The scene of this exploit was a town containing about six 
thousand inhabitants. 

The Passatore, like Robin Hood, robbed only the rich, 
and did not molest the poor ; this gave his men the sym- 
pathy of a large part of the population ; and, the police 
being as much employed against revolutionary associations 
as against robbers, the robbers and revolutionists often made 
common cause. 

The Passatore was chief over three bands, — his own, and 
those of two lieutenants, one of whom was famous for the 
numerous murders he had committed. These bands had 
innumerable sympathizers in the towns and villages. They 
had fictitious names for everything and everybody ; so that 
when two of the initiated met in public, they could talk freely 
without fear of being understood by a third party. They 
were well armed, and each man carried on his back an en- 
ormous sack, in which he could hide himself if necessary. 
The band frequently passed from Romagna into Tuscany, 
and from Tuscany into Romagna. They often set out upon 
their raids in carriages, that they might the more quickly be 
transported back over the frontier. When the zeal of Zam- 
belli had succeeded in breaking up the main band of outlaws, 
those who were left took refuge in Tuscany out of his reach. 

It was Zambelli's policy to secure the services of manu- 
tengoli — that is, hand-claspers, or honorary members of 



364 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

some robber- band — by promises of pardon and reward. 
" Some," he says, " served well ; but some deceived me, and 
betrayed my purposes." So great, however, was the terror 
of all good citizens lest the brigands should suspect them of 
sympathy with the cause of justice, that it was harder to 
get information from them than from the manutengoli, who 
were confederates of the robbers. 

In i860, Zambelli joined the papal army under Lamori- 
ciere, and was in the battle of Castelfidardo with his carbi- 
neers. He speaks of Lamoriciere's force as an undisciplined 
and heterogeneous horde of warriors ; his own regiment, 
which was in excellent order, received high praise from the 
general. After Castelfidardo they took possession of An- 
cona ; but the town was forced to capitulate, and the car- 
bineers with the other papal troops were disbanded and 
dispersed. Zambelli retired into private life, having received 
many wounds from attacks made on him in the dark, as well 
as many medals. He was eighty-six years old in 1892, when 
his autobiography was published. It was a brief record of 
his adventurous life, written for his family ; but, having been 
seen by a literary man in Florence engaged in catering for 
the public taste, its author, with some difficulty, was per- 
suaded to consent to its publication. 

It may be gathered from Zambelli's narrative that dur- 
ing the years of anarchy and civil war that preceded the 
unification of Italy, brigands and revolutionists often lent 
assistance to each other. When, in i860, two armies 
were disbanded in the kingdom of Naples, — the volunteers 
of Garibaldi, and the forces of King Francis, — about fifty 
thousand men, more or less desperate, and all used to bear 
arms, were let loose upon society. Some enlisted in the 
papal forces, but a large part took to the mountains and 
became banditti. This state of things, both in Naples and 
Sicily, made the establishment of good government in the 
Two Sicilies the despair of the ministers of Victor Em- 
manuel. Piedmontese troops were sent into the south 
to put down the brigands, while Neapolitan regiments 
were quartered in the north, lest the soldiers should 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 365 

show sympathy with relations and old comrades engaged 
in brigandage. 

The ex-king Francis took advantage of this state of 
affairs to annoy and embarrass the King of Italy. He sent 
agents into the mountains of Calabria and Apulia; he 
attached robber-chiefs to his service, and, exasperated as 
they were against the Piedmontese government, which was 
using every effort to restore law and order, they were glad 
of a political cloak under which to shelter their crimes. The 
peasantry too, who, as we have seen, were always, from fear 
or sympathy, more or less in alliance with the outlaws, were 
anything but satisfied with the results of the revolution. 
The misgovernment of the Bourbons had not borne hard 
on them. They cared nothing for what the educated classes 
called " liberty." The liberty they wanted was to be left 
in peace, independent of the law, and to be, above all things, 
unburdened by taxation. 

The Sicilian and Neapolitan peasantry have been a dis- 
affected population ever since the formation of the king- 
dom of Italy ; and the power of the brigands soon became 
so great that there was talk of a brigand-rising in favor of 
the former government. It became absolutely necessary 
for the Italian authorities to put down the outlaws. It must 
be owned that the task was hard enough to fill them with 
despair; but it must also be added that their methods 
were quite as barbarous as anything we read of under the 
rule of the Bourbons. 

There is no question, that, whatever may be the testi- 
mony of plebiscites, the rural population of the late kingdom 
of Naples soon became hostile to the new regime, — to its 
enforcement of law, its taxation, and its conscription. It 
was impossible to carry out the principle that governments 
that have not the consent of an unintelligent majority are 
illegitimate, and yet preserve the unity of Italy. " In 
Naples," said d'Azeglio, " we have made a change, and 
have sought to establish our government on a basis of uni- 
versal suffrage ; but sixty battalions are required to hold the 
kingdom, and it seems that even these are not enough." 



366 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

To take advantage of this state of things, Spanish officers 
were sent over to Calabria under the secret sanction of the 
exiled dynasty. About twenty of them landed in the ex- 
treme south of the peninsula, under General Borjes, a Cata- 
lan who had distinguished himself by deeds of daring in the 
first Carlist war. They hoped soon to collect an army ; 
but the brigand chiefs, on whom they had relied, declined 
to submit to their authority and, as winter was approaching, 
their best plan seemed to be to make their way over the 
frontier into the Pope's dominions. They were arrested, 
however, when only a few miles from safety, and summarily 
shot. 

The generals sent into the Abruzzi and Calabria to put 
down brigands issued proclamations whose brutality called 
forth remonstrances in the English Parliament, where, in 
1863, Mr. Baillie Cochrane quoted one put forth by a 
Major Fumel, remarking that " a more infamous proclama- 
tion" had never disgraced the Reign of Terror." It ran as 
follows : — 

" The undersigned, having been commissioned to destroy 
brigandage, promises a reward of one hundred lire for every 
brigand, alive or dead, who may be brought to him. This re- 
ward will be given to any brigand who shall kill his comrade ; 
moreover, his own life shall be spared. Those who, in defiance 
of this, give shelter, or any means of subsistence or support, to 
brigands, or, seeing them, or knowing the place where they may 
have taken refuge, do not give information to the forces, and to 
the civil or military authorities, will be immediately shot. For 
the custody of animals, it would be well that they should be 
brought into several central spots, with a sufficient armed force, 
because it would not be of use unless the force were sufficient. 
All straw huts must be burned. The towers and country houses 
which are not inhabited must be, within the space of three days, 
unroofed and their entrances bricked up. Otherwise, after the 
expiration of that time they will, without fail, be burned, and all 
animals which are not under proper guard will be killed. It is 
prohibited to carry bread, or any kind of provisions, beyond the 
habitations of the communes ; and whoever disobeys this order 
will be considered an accomplice of the brigands. Provision- 
ally, and under these circumstances, the syndics are authorized 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 367 

to grant permission to carry arms under the strict responsibility 
of the land-owners who shall make the request. Shooting as a 
sport is also provisionally forbidden ; and therefore no one may 
fire off a gun, unless to give notice to the armed posts of the pres- 
ence of the brigands, or of their flight. The National Guard of 
each commune is responsible for its own district. The under- 
signed does not mean to recognize under present circumstances 
more than two parties, — brigands and anti-brigands. There- 
fore he will class among the former those who are indifferent ; 
and against these he will take energetic measures, for in times 
of general necessity it is a crime to stand apart. The dis- 
banded soldiers who do not present themselves within the space 
of four days will be considered brigands. 

When these and similar documents were brought to the 
notice of the Emperor Napoleon III., he addressed the fol- 
lowing letter to his confidential friend and agent, General 
Fleury : — 

11 1 have written to Turin to remonstrate. The details we 
receive are of such a kind as to be calculated to alienate every 
honest mind from the Italian cause. Not only are misery and 
anarchy at their height, but the most culpable and unworthy 
acts seem matters of course. A general, whose name I have 
forgotten, having forbidden the peasants to take provisions with 
them when they go to work in the fields, has decreed that all on 
whom a piece of bread may be found shall be shot. The Bour- 
bons never did anything like that." 

It may have been hard to persuade the Neapolitan peasan- 
try, who had been assured of peace and plenty under Italian 
unity, that the best means of promoting liberty and pros- 
perity was laying waste their farms, villages, and even their 
market towns by fire and sword. But the only answer to 
remonstrances both from abroad and in the parliament at 
Turin was, that brigandage had to be put down, and that by 
the armed hand. It was almost impossible in Naples, quite 
impossible in Sicily, to procure either a judge or jury who 
would convict a brigand. The only way of getting rid of 
him was to imprison him for months without trial, or to have 
him summarily shot. 



368 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The prison system in Naples had not been reformed dur- 
ing the early years of the new government. It was as bad 
as in the days when Mr. Gladstone wrote of it. The prisons 
contained, indeed, few gentlemen of education and refine- 
ment, but those therein were loaded, as Poerio and Settem- 
brini had been, with chains, and forced to associate with 
criminals. Lord Henry Lennox, who, as an ardent sympa- 
thizer with the Italian revolution and an admirer of Gari- 
baldi, visited the southern provinces in 1863, was permitted 
to visit the prisons, and in very temperate language gave an 
account of what he had seen in them to the House of Com- 
mons. His speech was a repetition of the statements of 
Mr. Gladstone twelve years before. 

It was not long, however, before brigandage, as associated 
with insurrection, met with its fall. Only a few scattered 
bands, brigands in the true sense of the word, kept the hills. 
These carried on predatory brigandage for years after. Some 
of them do so still. 

The ancient brigandage, which the Italian government 
likes to claim that it has now suppressed, has lost its pic- 
turesque character, and is mere highway robber}'. " What 
has become of all the brigands?" asked a traveller of an 
Irishman who had long lived in Italy. " Shure, and hav' n't 
they all intered into the service of the railway companies?" 
was the reply. A correspondent of the Baltimore " Sun," 
recently writing from Italy says : — 

• { A few years ago I fell in with one of the old-time brigands, 
at Melfi, — a man who in his day had done great deeds, when 
highway robbery seems to have risen to the dignity of a fine art. 
His name was Francesco Fonzella. but he was known by the 
name of Fina. He had long given up business as a brigand, 
and was engaged in the harmless and necessary occupation of a 
water-carrier. He had begun his career as a soldier in the army 
of Francis II., King of Naples. He was one of the last to leave 
the fortress of Gaeta when the defence was led by that heroic 
woman the young Queen of Naples, sister to the present Em- 
press of Austria. The Italian army was successful, and the 
fortress capitulated. Fonzella returned to his native place a 
disbanded soldier, and was maltreated bv everv new official, who 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 369 

sought to retain his post by being harsh to the soldiers of the 
defeated king. A lieutenant of the new National Guard was 
particularly severe to Fonzella, and one day struck him. Fon- 
zella returned the blow with interest. Conscious that it would 
go hard with him if the case came before the courts, Fonzella 
fled, and joined the forces of the noted brigand Crocco, who, 
from having once been a peaceful shepherd, had become the 
terror of southern Italy. The wife of Fonzella found means to 
communicate with her husband. This fact was discovered, and 
she was with especial harshness and cruelty condemned to be 
shot in the public square, — a sentence solemnly carried out to 
the end. 

11 The newly-made brigand thirsted for revenge. He attri- 
buted the death of his wife to the lieutenant. When it was 
night in the village of San Fele, near Melfi, Fonzella, disguised 
as a woman, entered the little cafe of the place, and there dis- 
charged two shots from a revolver at the lieutenant. The dis- 
guised brigand, in the confusion that followed, made his escape. 
The lieutenant's wounds were not mortal, and he recovered. 
The proximity of the brigands to this village created alarm, and 
guards were posted to protect the place. The brigands ap- 
proached. Fonzella was on the watch for his victim. This 
time his shot was deadly. His career was fixed. He was an 
outlaw and an assassin. 

" The usual occupation of Crocco's band was robbery of the 
wealthy Italians of the vicinity, battles with the Italian troops, 
and the seizure and robbery of rich foreigners, for whose deliv- 
erance heavy ransoms were demanded. When a detachment of 
troops was sent against them, they showed considerable courage. 
As they knew the country well, with its hiding-places and points 
of vantage, it was not easy to capture them. 

11 On the feast of the Carmine, July 16, a detachment of 
cavalry, commanded by a young lieutenant of the Italian army 
surprised these brigands. Crocco did not like to fight because 
it was a feast day, and proposed that the battle should be post- 
poned. The young lieutenant answered, ' No truce with brig- 
ands ! ' The scruples of Crocco were cast to the winds, and 
the fight began. Not a man of the Italian cavalry was left 
alive. 

" The old water-carrier of Melfi, with his thick bushy eyebrows 
overhanging his small bright eyes, his tufted hair and beard, 
now so silent and absorbed, admitted he had killed twenty-two 
persons, — two through his especial vengeance, twenty in the 
way of business. 

24 



370 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CEA T TURY. 

" The band at last capitulated. Their lives were spared, but 
they were condemned to imprisonment. Fonzella spent twenty 
years in prison, and then returned to his native place." 



Doubtless, hundreds of the brigands who infested south- 
ern Italy could have told very much the same tale as this 
Fonzella. 

Some one in the year 1881 took the pains to ascertain 
how many British subjects had been captured by brigands 
and held for ransom during the preceding twenty years, — 
that is, from 1861 to 1881. In all there were thirteen cap- 
tures, and twenty-nine captives, — three captures in Mexico, 
two in Italy, one in Sicily, four in Spain, two in Greece, and 
one in Turkey. 

Mr. Beale was captured near Florence, in July, 1864. 
Twelve thousand scudi were demanded for his ransom ; 
but, happily for him, he was released the next day, his 
guards being under a mistaken impression that the sum had 
been paid. 

Mr. and Mrs. William Moens, and the Rev. Mr. Aynsley 
and his wife were taken near Battipaglia, in May, 1865. 
The ladies were released the same day, and Mr. Aynsley 
the day following, to make arrangements for the ransom ; 
^8,500 was demanded, but the British consul at Naples 
succeeded in effecting a compromise for ,£5,000, and Mr. 
Moens, who had been left in pawn during three months, 
was released. He subsequently gave an interesting account 
of his experiences. 

The Sicilian victim, Mr. Rose, was taken in November, 
1876, close to a railroad station near Palermo; £5,000, 
then £2,000, was demanded for his release, but about 
£1,600 was finally accepted. 

Such exploits as the recent one, when the Duke of Saxe- 
Weimar was " held up " on the road between Rome and 
Albano by a ruffian with a handkerchief tied over his face, 
can hardly be called brigandage ; they are vulgar highway 
robberies. 

Brigandage of the old sort still exists, however, in Sicily ; 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. $J1 

and there the Mafia has its roots in the very soil. Every 
ship-load of Sicilian or Calabrian immigrants landed on our 
shores is doubtless a satisfaction to the Italian government. 
The southern Italians are attracted to New Orleans by the 
climate. The greater part of the Piedmontese and Lom- 
bards, an industrious and thrifty class, land in New York. 
Many from Sicily and Naples go to Buenos Ayres. 

The Mafia, as it now exists, is hardly a secret society. 
" It is," says an Italian, writing of it in 1887, "rather the 
development (the blossom) of arbitrary violence, directed 
to criminal ends of every kind. It is the instinctive, brutal, 
sordid solidarity that unites itself against the State, the laws, 
and the constituted authorities." But the most discour- 
aging circumstance in connection with this society is that 
its working is, even by honest men, accepted as the inevit- 
able. " It would take a volume," says a writer in the 
"Fortnightly Review," "to specify all the modes in which, 
without violating the letter of the law, the Mafia can make 
things comfortable for its subordinates." 

The Mafia is organized upon the feudal system. Mem- 
bers of the High Mafia — the "Mafia in kid gloves" — 
have each their subordinates ; these have their clients, and 
so on. "Even by the various governments of Sicily, up to 
1877, the High Mafia has been shielded, it never having 
suited any ministry or ministerial functionary to bring home 
to its members crimes for which it was well known they 
were responsible. So great has been its political influence, 
that it has frequently controlled the elections, parliamentary 
and municipal, not only in the small towns and villages, but 
also in Messina and Palermo." 

Mafia in Sicily, Camorra in Naples, are two names for the 
same thing. But the word " Camorra" has now come into 
use as a term in Italian politics. It means what we call 
"The Ring." The Camorra, indeed, as a last resort, has 
recourse to the stiletto ; in other respects the Camorra and 
the Ring are the same thing. In 1877 the Italian govern- 
ment roused itself to action, and endeavored to put down 
red-handed Mafiaism in Sicily. It flattered itself that it 



372 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

had driven every suspected member of the Mafia out of the 
island, — many of them to our own shores. But the spirit 
of the thing remains, though its methods are somewhat 
changed. The Mafia and the Camorra have adapted 
themselves to the ideas of the nineteenth century. 

Sicily and Naples are to the kingdom of Italy what Ire- 
land has been to the English government. Their deputies 
in the Italian parliament make noise and trouble, like those 
of the sister isle at Westminster. Absenteeism, as in Ireland, 
is a principal cause of Sicilian destitution, and the land 
question is at the root of the peasants' discontent. Sixty- 
five per cent, of the acreage of Sicily consists of immense 
estates, varying in size from three thousand to fifteen thou- 
sand acres. The landlord rarely lives on these estates ; he 
employs an agent, called a " gabellotto," who lets the land 
to those who sublet it at a rack-rent to others, who again 
sublet it in small lots to men who pay rent for it by two- 
thirds or three-quarters of the crop they raise. " Tenant 
farmers, with capital or farm buildings on the holdings, are 
equally unknown. The tenant is almost always in debt to 
the gabellotto, who advances him food and seed-corn at an 
extravagant interest, and to whom he is virtually a serf. If 
the season is good, he barely pays his way ; if it is bad, he 
sinks hopelessly into debt. Baron Mendola, a Sicilian 
landlord and a shrewd observer, has given it as his deliber- 
ate opinion that the average Sicilian peasant cannot make 
both ends meet. " Honest labor," he says, "seldom suffices 
for the maintenance of his family. He must steal." What 
wonder that brigandage has attractions for young men ! 
With respect to local politics in Sicily, the situation was thus 
described by an English writer nine years ago. I quote 
the passage, rather than employ any words of my own : — 

" In each commune there are two parties. One must crush 
the other, so as to monopolize all the spoils of local office, and, 
by the influence of the deputy which it elects, to deter the 
<prefetto from looking too curiously into any little irregularities 
that may be committed under his jurisdiction. The struggle for 
the municipal purse is more ignoble and more injurious to pub- 



BRIGANDAGE AND SECRET SOCIETIES. 373 

lie morality than even the disputes of rival families in former 
days ; and in these struggles the Mafia, with its terrible 
power, is practically the arbiter. Willingly or unwillingly, the 
wealthy gabellotto must support it by his influence, providing 
its members with employment and wages, or pushing them 
into municipal offices, according to their wishes and social 
positions." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 

WICTOR EMMANUEL, first king of Italy, died January 
v 8, 1878. and his son Humbert, or Umberto, suc- 
ceeded him, •• as quietly as if the Italian kingdom had 
existed for generations under the princes of the house of 
Savoy." All foreign nations seem to have felt sympathy 
for the loss sustained by Italy in the death of Victor 
Emmanuel, and hastened to send tributes of respect and of 
good-will to his son. The first utterances of the new King 
did credit both to his heart and understanding ; and during 
the eighteen years that have since elapsed he has endeav- 
ored to do his duty faithfully as a constitutional monarch, 
and, so far as opportunity has offered, to display a kind- 
hearted interest in his people. " My sole ambition," he 
said, on the day of his accession, " will be to deserve my 
people's love." 

Humbert is not, apparently, a man of striking abilities, 
and he has placed himself always in the hands of his minis- 
ters. One after another they have governed Italy. He 
has nothing of the personal magnetism of his father, who 
attracted to himself almost the adoration of all who were 
brought into contact with him ; besides which, the lax 
morality which was condoned in the father has told against 
the son, whose subjects are almost ready to worship his 
beautiful wife, born, like himself, a member of the house 
of Savoy. Humbert is not handsome ; he wears the same 
aggressive-looking moustachios as his father, and his hair 
is now snow-white, though he is only fifty-two years old. 
His mother died in 1855, when he was only eleven; and 
his father, then in the very crisis of Italian affairs, could give 




KING HUMBERT. 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 375 

little time to the five children whom she had left him, — 
Umberto, Amadeo, Odone, Clotilde, and Maria Pia. But 
they were all early imbued with the traditions of their 
house, and with an eager desire for the expulsion of the 
stranger from Italy, while they were fast bound together by 
ties of family affection. 

In 1859, at the age of fifteen, Humbert fought by his 
father's side in the campaign that ended at Villafranca, and 
very early he was employed on important political missions. 
He was at Palermo when Garibaldi landed there on the eve 
of his second invasion of the kingdom of Naples. The 
prince and the general dined together, and together went to 
the theatre, — the prince not suspecting, probably, what his 
father's restless subject had in his mind. Umberto was 
subsequently sent to Paris, shortly before the Seven Weeks' 
War, to sound the French government as to its sentiments 
concerning the alliance between Italy and Prussia. In the 
campaign of 1866 both he and his brother Amadeo fought 
as became the princes of their house. Amadeo was wounded 
in the shoulder ; and at Custozza, Nino Bixio (Garibaldi's 
old lieutenant) was just in time to save Umberto from great 
peril, so fearlessly had he exposed himself to the enemy. 

In 1868, General Menabrea, then prime minister, put it 
into Victor Emmanuel's head, if I may use a homely phrase, 
that the best bride for Umberto would be his first cousin 
Margherita, — a princess about whom the King, strange to 
say, seems to have known little, though she was the daugh- 
ter of his beloved brother, the Duke of Genoa, who died in 
1855, shortly before the Sardinian troops departed for the 
Crimean war. The idea at once commended itself to Victor 
Emmanuel, and Umberto became the husband of one of 
the most beautiful and well-educated women in Europe. 
They have but one child, Victor Emmanuel, now heir ap- 
parent to the kingdom of Italy, and Prince of Naples. 

While Florence was the capital of Italy, Humbert and 
Margherita lived chiefly at Turin; but when Rome was 
united to the kingdom, they took up their quarters with 
Victor Emmanuel at the Quirinal. It had been hoped that 



376 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the presence of the Princess might make more of an Italian 
court than had been possible while the King of Italy 
remained a widower ; but on Victor Emmanuel's morgana- 
tic marriage with the Countess di Mirafiore, that lady 
desired recognition as a legal wife, and showed great jeal- 
ousy of the Princess. As ladies of the Italian nobility could 
not be expected to recognize the Countess as first lady of 
the land, the attempt to hold a court was in a great meas- 
ure frustrated; but the Princess Margherita became a 
favorite with Victor Emmanuel, and persuaded him to con- 
form rather more than his inclination would have led him 
to do to the usages of society. 

Queen Margherita has but one fault, the fault of all fas- 
cinating queens, — she is extravagant. Her husband, on 
the contrary, has always practised rigid personal economy. 
The civil list of Italy is large, and life at the Quirinal con- 
forms to the tastes of the lady who presides over social 
functions. At Monza, the retreat to which the royal 
family retires every summer, etiquette is laid aside, and life 
is simple and domestic. The Queen is always attended by 
an elderly white-haired lady, her motherly duenna and 
friend, the Marchesa di Villamarina. Innumerable are the 
anecdotes of Margherita's kindly consideration for the wishes, 
the wants, and even the whims of others. She plays on all 
kinds of musical instruments ; she knows Latin, Greek, and 
Spanish ; she speaks French, English, and German. Her 
favorite jewels are pearls (Margherita means "pearl" in 
Italian) ; and she has a magnificent collection of them, for 
the king always gives her a string of pearls upon the anni- 
versary of their wedding day. She has been ever the most 
loving mother to her son, whose health is delicate. She 
superintended his education, but was so long in providing 
him with a wife, that it was thought he intended to remain a 
bachelor. Should he die without children, the succession 
will pass to his cousin the son of Amadeo, who has just 
married Princess Helene of Orleans. 

On November 17, 1878, eleven months after King Hum- 
bert's accession to the throne, as he was making his entry 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 377 

into Naples, accompanied by the Queen, by his little son the 
Crown Prince, and by his prime minister Benedetto Cairoli, 
a petitioner approached the carriage offering a paper. The 
King stretched out his hand to receive it, when the man 
pulled out a dagger and dealt a blow at him. The King 
caught it on his arm, for the Queen had flung her bouquet 
in the assassin's face which made his aim uncertain. Then 
Humbert sprang to his feet, and struck his assailant with 
his sword. The man, Passamente by name, aimed then 
another blow, this time more surely, at the King's heart ; 
but Benedetto Cairoli threw himself on the assassin, re- 
ceived the wound intended for his sovereign, and held the 
murderer by his hair until an officer rode up and secured 
him. In two minutes the royal carriage and the procession 
moved on, the occupants keeping their places. Cairoli was 
observed to be smiling radiantly, though he was bleeding 
profusely from the wound he had received, — almost on the 
same spot in which he had been severely wounded while 
serving under Garibaldi in Sicily. But though the Queen 
bore up bravely for the remainder of the day, the alarm and 
excitement brought on nervous prostration, from which she 
suffered for many months, and which seriously alarmed the 
court and those around her. 

The death of the Count di Cavour in the prime of his 
life, and when the triumph of Italian unity was almost at 
hand, was a misfortune for his country when it took place, 
and has proved a still greater misfortune as years have 
rolled on. He was born in 18 10, was a year younger than 
Mr. Gladstone, and in the course of nature might have been 
alive and at the helm of state to the present day. 

The three things on which Cavour's great heart was set, 
the objective points to which he directed all his policy 
were — first, the making of Italy, including the making of 
an Italian people; second, a free Church in a free State ; 
third, peace with surrounding nations, since peace would 
give Italy the best chance to consolidate herself, and to 
recover from the strain of her great struggle. 

The policy of Italy has not run along these lines since the 



3/8 ITALY IX THE XIXETEENTH CENTURY. 

death of Cavour. For fifteen years afterwards the reins of 
government remained in the hands of his disciple and col- 
league, King Victor Emmanuel, who, though strictly a 
constitutional sovereign, could not but impose his own 
convictions and the line of his life-long policy on the vari- 
ous ministers who too rapidly succeeded one another during 
the remainder of his reign. In those days there was very 
little distinction between Right and Left in the Italian par- 
liament. All the deputies had worked together in the same 
cause. When one ministry went out and another ministry 
took office, little change of policy took place. All Cavour's 
successors were worthy of him on the side of patriotism and 
of sincerity, — Minghetti, La Marmora, Ricasoli, Lanza, 
Stella, and others. But although they were his honest dis- 
ciples, men of his school, they did not add to their great 
honesty and often great capacity the firmness of character 
which had given Cavour such weight. 

When Victor Emmanuel died and his son succeeded him, 
a new order of ministers had entered upon office, — men 
as talented, as patriotic, and as full of sincerity as their pre- 
decessors, but who had received their training in another 
school. From 1878 to 1896, all the statesmen prominent 
in Italian cabinets have been old Garibaldians, — Depretis, 
Cairoli, Xicotera, and, above all, Francesco Crispi. A 
man's policy may change with the times and with experi- 
ence, but his political sentiments have been generally in- 
stilled into him by his early training. These men, who had 
followed Garibaldi to Sicily, and thought by force of arms 
to annex Rome to Italy, cherished projects of territorial 
enlargement for their country rather than plans for her con- 
solidation. They were eager to make Italy one of the 
Great Powers, — not as a means to an end, as Cavour had 
planned when he sent Sardinian troops to join the French 
and English in the Crimean war, but for what is called in 
modern slang " jingoism," and in old times was called 
"vainglory." The Italians as a people are nourished and 
brought up on classical traditions, and cannot forget that 
Italy once ruled the world. They do not realize that she 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN 379 

is now but a small country, with no dominant city to give 
laws to the whole earth ; that, though Italy is " made," 
Italians at present are only in the making, and have not 
been trained to self-government ; that Italy is territorially, 
not nationally (as yet), consolidated ; and that sectional 
jealousies and dislikes largely prevail. " Italy," said a 
gentleman long resident in one of its chief cities, " is like a 
family living in an alley, who insist upon keeping a car- 
riage and four." 

Depretis, the minister who came into power in 1873, 
after the fall of Rattazzi, and who, his contemporaries said, 
held office too long (he held power for ten years, with short 
intervals) , had been appointed by Garibaldi his vice-dictator 
in Sicily, when in 1862 he went from that island with his 
Red Shirts to conquer the kingdom of Naples. But as soon 
as Victor Emmanuel became sovereign of Italy, Depretis 
ranged himself on the side of king and country. His min- 
isterial life was fraught with great difficulties, but he himself 
was always honored and esteemed. The difficulties were 
the usual ones in Italy, — that is to say, the weight of 
the debts which the country . had accumulated in her 
great effort to secure her freedom, and of the new ones 
which it became necessary to contract. During the great 
and glorious struggle for Italian nationality a veil was cast 
by patriotism over the eyes of every Italian citizen ; so that, 
proud of their own success, and secure of the sympathy of 
other peoples, they never admitted the thought that they 
might weep upon the morrow. Depretis found before him 
a task harder than that of those who preceded him. They 
had governed a people less under illusions than he found 
them. Being a man of sagacity and experience, he thor- 
oughly comprehended that the Italian people had reached 
the measure of the weight their backs could bear ; but he 
was pushed by his classical reminiscences, by his colleagues, 
and by his party beyond the point that he thought prudent. 
All urged him to do something great and imposing, which 
would add glory and renown to Italy, and make her name 
shine brightly in the eyes of the world. 



380 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Depretis had a real affection for the reigning family, — 
above all for King Humbert, whom at the outset of his 
regal career he deemed it his duty to assist and protect, as 
a tutor protects his pupil. He was more of a parliamentary 
leader than a statesman, and the deputies in the Italian 
parliament occupy themselves less with national affairs than 
with local interests, — such interests as with us are rele- 
gated to State legislatures. All accounts say that the depu- 
ties (those especially from the old kingdoms of Naples and 
Sicily) are servants of a Ring — the Camorra — which 
elects them; and they in return are pledged to promote the 
interests of these supporters, particularly in the matter of 
appropriations. Thence come the great sums voted for 
local improvements, especially for nearly useless lines of 
railway. No party in power hesitates to make an extrava- 
gant use of the national funds. Each party when out of 
power inveighs against extravagance and taxation. It was 
Depretis who brought his old Garibaldian comrades into 
prominence ; but in time they turned against him. They 
were Crispi, Cairoli, Nicotera, Zanardelli, and some others. 

Twice in brief periods, when Depretis was out of office, 
Benedetto Cairoli formed a ministry. Cairoli had never been 
presented to Prince Humbert till they met at Victor Em- 
manuel's last reception, on New Year's Day, 1878. He was 
prime minister under the new king in the March following ; 
and in November, as we have seen, he saved his sover- 
eign's life. He said of himself that he was more honest 
than skilful {piu ones to cK abile) ; others said of him that 
" he soared in such heights of blue ether that he was un- 
conscious of the needs felt in a lower atmosphere." On 
taking office he said to the Chamber : " Parties dissolve, 
one Assembly succeeds another, ministers pass away ; but 
a nation born in tears, nurtured in martyrdom, built up by 
the valor of her sons, — this is an edifice which does not 
crumble or decay ; this is a Pharos whose light cannot grow 
dim." 

Cairoli remained in office only till December, 1878, but 
returned to it in the summer of the following year, and held 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 38 1 

it till 1 88 1, when the French surprised all Europe by enter- 
ing Tunis as it were by a back gate, and taking possession 
of what was the bit of Africa coveted by Italy, — an acqui- 
sition that would have been really of use to her, a country 
in which she had already made a railroad, and which was 
divided by only ninety miles of water from Sicily. Italy 
had been waiting for an opportunity to acquire Tunis. 
France, it was believed, had been debarred from doing so 
by treaty — when, lo ! France caught her rival asleep, and 
in 1 88 1 carried off the prize. Italians turned their indig- 
nation against Cairoli. He quitted office rather than make 
explanations in public which would have further embittered 
the feeling between the two countries ; but he said to the 
French ambassador the day before he resigned, " I am the 
last Italian minister who will be friendly to France." 

Benedetto Cairoli was the survivor of four brothers, all 
of whom had been devoted by their heroic mother to the 
liberation of Italy. All served under Garibaldi in each one 
of his expeditions. One died in battle ; two were treacher- 
ously stabbed by Papal Zouaves as they lay wounded a few 
days before Mentana ; and Benedetto, crippled for life by 
his wounds, lived to save the life of his sovereign. " He 
belonged to the party which, had it been theirs to choose, 
would have established Italian unity on a republican basis, but 
which maintained that ' no one has a right to substitute his 
own will, or that of his section, for the national will.' " 
When his Garibaldian hopes had passed away, his heart 
cried to Victor Emmanuel as Mazzini had once done to 
Carlo Alberto, " We must have one United Italy ! Will 
you unite her? If so, we will stand by you." 

Cairoli's gospel was one of concord. Since Italy was 
united, why, he thought, should not Italians be? He was 
never tired of urging that, without moral unity, political 
unity could avail nothing. Alas ! his wounds too early 
sapped his strength, and not long after his retirement from 
office he died, beloved by all who had ever been brought into 
personal contact with him, and attended by the wife he 
loved. No grandchild was ever granted to the widow 



$S2 ITALY IX THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Cairoli. When Benedetto died, it was found that during 
the time he was prime minister he had drawn on his own 
capital for more than fifteen thousand dollars, having de- 
voted his official salary to pay expenses commonly borne by 
the State. — such as the payment of secretaries, the cost of 
carriages, etc. 

To Cairoli and Depretis succeeded Mancini. to whom, and 
to the Marquis Robilant, Italy owes the millstone of the 
Triple Alliance, and her unhappy possession of Massowah. 

In 1SS7, Francesco Crispi came into power, and has 
held it almost continuously till a few months ago. He has, 
indeed, been displaced by occasional political crises, when the 
cards would be shuffled, and possibly a new premier would 
take office ; but Crispi would resume his place at an early 
day. He is a Sicilian both by birth and character. In early 
life he was a conspirator, a follower of Mazzini. Subse- 
quently he threw himself heart and soul into the enterprises 
of Garibaldi. He was with him in 1S62, and at Aspromonte 
and Mentana ; but twenty years later he found himself a 
cabinet minister under a constitutional king of Italy. He 
has since taken Prince Bismarck for his model, — and in 
this has not departed far from the traditions of Garibaldi, 
who maintained that a republic needed a dictator. As a 
follower of Garibaldi in his latter days, Crispi held the pope 
and all the priests in holy horror, — nay, even religion itself, 
whether Papal or Protestant. Xor has he been a man who 
has escaped domestic scandals ; he had at one time one 
legal and one illegal spouse, and lived openly with the 
latter. 1 He is a man who loves show and tinsel. Italy has 
had a great deal of glitter to be proud of under Crispi, — 
but, alas ! we in the United States know how enormous is 
her emigration, not because of any overplus in her popula- 

1 Sign or Crispi has been three times married. His first wife died 
young. While in exile at" Malta he was married to Rosalia Montfas- 
son. The union not having proved a happy one, the parties sought 
a divorce, when they learned that no divorce was needed, certain 
acts necessary to make the marriage legal not having been complied 
with. Signor Crispi afterwards married another lady, who, I believe, 
is still living. 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN 383 

tion, but because her peasants have no money to pay their 
taxes ; and this wholesale emigration leaves entire fertile 
regions desolate, which ought to laugh and sing with ripen- 
ing grain. 

Crispi is represented as being gifted with a strong will, 
much audacity, and (what is sometimes a strength in politics) 
unlimited confidence in himself. His temper is fiery, and 
he often loses it in parliamentary debates. With his Gari- 
baldian detestation of the Papacy, he by no means gives a 
cordial support to the Papal guarantees. "A free State, 
and down with all ecclesiasticism ! " would probably be his 
motto. His policy, foreign and domestic, has been planned 
with a view to effect ; he has sought to tickle the vanity of 
the Italians. But his enemies cannot deny that he has fear- 
lessness, energy, and rapidity of action, — qualities espe- 
cially valuable when dealing with a parliamentary assembly, 
apt (unless individual members are aroused on questions of 
local appropriations) " to fall into that condition of uninter- 
ested lassitude which is the dominant note in the Italian 
political world." Italians have not been educated to parlia- 
mentary life, and unless they can get something out of par- 
liament they do not "like the bother" it entails on them. 
This was not Cavour's idea of how Italy was to be governed 
by a parliamentary system. Young Italy is not the Italy of 
Cavour. 

An English writer who in 1891 put forth a book on 
"The Sovereigns and Courts of Europe," under the 710m de 
plume of " Politikos," praises highly King Humbert's good 
heart and courage. " But Italy," he says, " is a poor country, 
impoverished also by the struggle it has had to pass through 
in order to effect its unity. It has, besides, many provinces 
which civilization has hardly reached, and where education 
is but commencing its labors. Such a land has need of rest, 
of quiet work, of wise and practical administration. It has 
need of statesmen of superior intelligence and acumen. 
Louis Philippe used to say, ' All tell me to do my duty ; but 
the difficulty does not consist in doing my duty, but in 
knowing what that duty is.' These words might be echoed 



3 §4 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

by the King of Italy. He is most sincerely anxious to do 
his duty, but he is tormented by uncertainty. He solves 
the situation by following closely the sentiment that is given 
by the passing vote of the Chamber, and in accordance with 
the solicitations of his ministers, who are naturally more in- 
clined to favor the temporary interests of their own party 
than the permanent interests of the State. It is said that 
King Humbert is always enthusiastic about the prime min- 
ister in office. He was so for Cairoli, for Depretis, and 
for Crispi. ... To his thirst for heroic deeds Italy is per- 
haps indebted for her hapless African policy, where she has 
been carried into adventures beyond her strength to con- 
duct or carry through. One of the King's indubitable 
merits is to know how to deal with the masses. He always 
speaks to them the right word." 

" The house of Savoy," says another English writer, " is 
the cement of Italy. Were it to disappear, then indeed 
would come disintegration with a vengeance ; and the sec- 
ond state of Italy would be worse than the first." 

It is not to be denied that Italy of late has fallen upon 
evil days ; and that she pains and surprises us, when we 
remember how, half a century ago, her struggle produced a 
band of men, each in his way of extraordinary powers, — 
Mazzini, the dreamer of an ideal republic ; Cavour, the 
master statesman ; Manin, the dictator of Venice ; d'Aze- 
glio, the thinker, the statesman, and the artist ; Ricasoli, 
the " Iron Baron " ; Gioberti, the priest who roused in his 
church the first cry for reform ; Garibaldi, the prince of 
guerilla captains ; Ugo Bassi, the monk and martyr ; 
Minghetti, the Cairoli, and many others. Of all these the 
story has been told too briefly in these pages. 

The perilous financial condition of Italy, with its contin- 
ually returning deficits, the burdensome taxation, the riotous 
protestations of the suffering poor, and the extraordinary 
emigration of its rural population were things all too likely 
to check the prosperity of the country, especially when we 
remember the sore always kept open by the relations of the 
Quirinal with the Vatican. But, in addition to these things, 



KING HUMBERT AND HJS REIGN. 385 

during the past two years there has been added a series 
of bank scandals, accompanied by serious failures, in con- 
sequence of which, ruin, suffering, and distrust have been 
spread widely everywhere, and have culminated in insinua- 
tions reflecting on the honesty of conspicuous and trusted 
men in power. There has lately come also a shock to Italy's 
colonial ambition, — a result that might have been expected 
when she endeavored to force herself upon a people nomi- 
nally Christian ; a people who possessed a government, which, 
however imperfect, had lasted from before the days of Solo- 
mon ; a people intrenched in strongholds which thirty years 
ago were pronounced inaccessible unless the advance of an 
invading army could be made through the territories of a 
friendly chief in rebellion against his emperor. Que diable 
allait- elk f aire dans ce tie gale re ? is the motto that ought to 
preface every book that undertakes to tell the story of the 
Italians in Abyssinia. 

"The explanation of Italy's many mistakes," says a writer 
in " Macmillan's Magazine," " is that the past is the seed- 
bed of the present." Under the excitement of the revolu- 
tionary struggle, Italians roused themselves to great deeds 
that their aspirations might be realized ; but when the mak- 
ing of Italy was accomplished, Italian politicians sank into 
lassitude, into the do Ice far niente which characterizes their 
nation. Add to this that one-third of the population of 
Italy is composed of southern Italians. Garibaldi's con- 
quests of Naples and of Sicily may possibly have been pre- 
mature. Italy, though incomplete, might perchance have 
been stronger without them, at least until fulness of time 
enabled her to annex them to an established, well-ordered 
kingdom. The unprepared-for acquisition of these prov- 
inces does not seem to have been altogether satisfactory 
to Cavour. 

We who deal only with domestic affairs soon learn to 
know that our foremost need as heads of a household, or as 
members of a community, is to maintain what is called "a 
good standing" among our neighbors in money matters. 
We must be prompt in our payments, ready to meet all 

25 



386 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

legitimate obligations, and must not suffer ourselves to be 
involved in crushing debts ; or, if we have them through 
misfortune, our whole strength must be exerted to pay them 
speedily. Society will not excuse us for heaping on our- 
selves new obligations. We have to care for those of our 
own house before we endeavor to increase our importance 
in the eyes of others. 

Even so it is with nations. What money they can com- 
mand should be appropriated first of all to making a 
contented prosperous people. No people can be either 
prosperous or progressive borne down by tyranny or taxes. 
This has not been the policy of Italy ; and while her par- 
liaments have been factious and indifferent, local adminis- 
trative bodies have abused their powers, till corruption in 
many places has reached an aggravated form. 

There is no reason to despair. Happily, Italians are 
becoming more and more aware of these evils. The dis- 
asters in Abyssinia have shaken the nation out of its sloth- 
ful and selfish indifference. "The Italians are a people 
who require the strain of circumstances to bring out the 
heroic qualities which they undoubtedly possess." This 
was the opinion of Sir James Hudson, who was for many 
years English minister at Turin, and whom Cavour used to 
call Italianissimo. Sir James used also to say that he 
never knew a people who so easily collapsed as the Italians. 
This seems to be so far true, that, after a period of heroic 
effort, they have sunk into a state in which mean and petty 
objects have thrust out of sight the higher interests of 
life. 

Mr. Gladstone, who revisited Naples in the winter of 
1888-89 a f ter an interval of thirty-eight years, has recorded 
his impressions. He was astonished and delighted to per- 
ceive the great change for the better that had taken place 
in the material condition of the population of Naples. " The 
basking, loitering, lolling, loafing population so completely 
Neapolitan seemed," he said, "to have become extinct. 
The filth in a great measure had disappeared. In all the 
frequented parts of the city the population was well clad. 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 387 

. . . There was a free press, free speech, free worship, and 
freedom of person." He adds : " Never were sovereigns 
more honest than Victor Emmanuel and King Humbert. 

. . . But in southern Italy an ingrained corruption, which, 
under the old system had become the ruling motive-power 
of public transactions, could not but exhibit itself even after 
the revolution. . . . There were many old agents of admin- 
istration whom it must have been necessary to retain, and 
there were doubtless crowds of new ones who had been 
bred in an atmosphere of prevailing laxity, and amidst a 
general absence of public spirit and civil manhood." 

After speaking of this crying evil of political corruption, — 
which, since 1889, when Mr. Gladstone wrote, has received 
the name of the " Rule of the Ring," or " Camorra," — he 
goes on to speak of what he terms a matter which calls for 
the most grave and urgent anxiety, that of the Italian 
finances. He takes his facts from a report made to 
the English parliament in March, six years ago. The 
national debt of Italy, which in December, 1861, stood at 
;£i 20,000,000, had in 1889 reached the portentous figure 
of ^5 20,000,000. Its interest annually was ^23,000,000, 
nearly two-fifths of the annual expenditure of the country. 
To this debt must be added forty-one millions more of 
provincial and commercial obligations. Some years earlier 
the minister of finance in Italy had been able to announce, 
with pride and pleasure, an equilibrium on his balance- 
sheet between receipts and expenditure. Reckless expen- 
diture since then on the army and navy (requirements of 
the Triple Alliance), colonial schemes on the east coast 
of Africa, great outlays on railways, and other public im- 
provements, — very many of them set on foot in the inter- 
est of private speculators, — account for the extraordinary 
increase in national outlay, while the revenue from taxa- 
tion has steadily fallen off at the rate of several millions of 
pounds sterling a year. It is true that the grist-tax, which 
was terribly onerous to the rural population (a tax on all 
the corn ground into flour), has been taken off. 

Italian commerce has been greatly curtailed by the quar- 



388 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

rel between France and Italy, which, aggravated by the riot 
and massacre of Italian working-men at Aigues Mortes, led 
to the breaking up of a commercial alliance advantageous 
to both countries. 

An English writer in the "Quarterly Review," a few years 
ago, speaking of taxation (and, except in the matter of the 
grist-tax, matters have not since improved), says: "Let 
us suppose an Italian is entitled to ^ioo, and only ^ioo 
per annum from the public funds, — ^13 4s. is deducted 
for the income tax. If he has ^100 from the profits of 
trade, he has to pay £9 15 s. If it comes in the form of 
salary, he is mulcted of £8 5 s. A professional man in 
London making ^300 a year, pays only £1 16s. A 
professional man in Rome earning the same income has 
to hand over ^24 15s." This seems a great sum to pay 
yearly towards national expenses, a large part of which 
is incurred for the honor of being considered a Great 
Power, and as such liable to invasion from France by land 
and Russia by sea in the event of another European war. 

Italy is essentially an agricultural country. Out of her 
thirty millions of inhabitants, barely four hundred thousand 
are employed in factories ; and of these not a third are 
male adults. 

" Any one who has seen King Humbert of Italy ride up 
the Via Nazionale in Rome, upon his birthday, surrounded 
by a splendid staff, and followed by some fifteen thousand 
troops of all branches of the service, or has been present at 
one of the reviews held periodically in the meadows be- 
tween the Tiber and Monte Mario, can hardly fail to have 
been struck by the excellent physique and soldierly bearing 
of the rank and file. But these constitute the garrison of 
Rome, and are not a fair sample of the Italian army, 
any more than the garrison of Paris in the days of the 
Second Empire accurately exemplified the forces with which 
Napoleon III. rushed to his destruction at Sedan. Though 
the minimum standard for recruits is only five feet one 
inch, the average height of the Italian army is five feet five 
inches. But, while native thews are not wanting, the 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 389 

necessity of economizing in every branch of the service 
causes parsimony in the feeding of the army. Many of the 
soldiers have a rickety and half-starved appearance ; and 
persons who ought to know assure us that, though drill is 
far more severe than it used to be, diet is precisely the 
same as it was before harder work was imposed on the raw 
recruit. The Italian soldier has allotted to him only half 
as much meat as is served out to the English soldier. His 
rations are smaller even than the French, and he has to find 
his own wine." The Duke of Wellington's doctrine of the 
three B's (Beef, Bread, and Beer), on which he based the 
efficiency of the English army, has not spread into Italy. 
In Germany the diet of the private soldier, his beer, and 
his tobacco are very carefully attended to. 

It remains to say a few words on the Triple Alliance, 
that so-called Peace League, which has succeeded in ob- 
taining the adhesion of Italy. Such an alliance had long 
been the cherished policy of Prince Bismarck. He used 
his utmost endeavors to persuade England to join it ; but 
England held aloof from entangling alliances, preferring the 
position of friend and arbiter between all parties, in the 
event of a European war. An alliance between Germany, 
Austro- Hungary, Italy, and England would, Bismarck rep- 
resented, be so formidable that no combination would dare 
to defy it, and he urged that there was not one chance in a 
hundred that these allied Powers would be called upon to 
go to war. But England preferred to remain free, even 
from the one risk in a hundred that might be involved in a 
strict alliance with this or that great Power, — though it is 
thought that in the event of a Continental war she has made 
some conditional promises to Italy ; for Italy listened to 
Prince Bismarck's voice when he told her that alliances 
should be made between nations not already connected by 
close neighborhood or ties of blood, for such things in 
nations, as in households, too frequently afford cause for 
family jars. In the alliance he proposed, Germany, he said, 
should be mistress of the Baltic and Italy of the Mediterra- 
nean, in the event of war. 



390 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

In the Italian parliament, though there are many minor 
political divisions, parties may be roughly divided into the 
Left, the Left Centre, and the Right, — the Right and the 
Left having each an extreme wing of irreconcilables. The 
chief matter that divides the Left from the Left Centre is 
foreign policy. The sympathies of the Left are anti-French, 
they are for alliance with Germany; the Left Centre is 
accused of a predilection for France, and of no cordial ac- 
ceptance of the Triple Alliance. The ministries of Italy, 
since King Humbert's reign began, have been chiefly taken 
from the Left. Crispi, from 1887 to almost the present 
day, has been Italy's leading statesman. He has always 
been considered a disciple of Prince Bismarck. One of his 
first acts, when he came into office, was to accept an invi- 
tation (refused by Depretis) to go to Berlin, and exchange 
views with the great chancellor. 

In 1886 Count Robilant was the ambassador of Italy in 
Vienna. He was thoroughly acquainted with Austrian 
politics, and in sympathy with Austrian views. Mancini, 
who had become prime minister on the fall of the Depretis 
ministry, recalled him to Rome to take charge of the port- 
folio for foreign affairs. The negotiations that were to 
make Italy a member of the Triple Alliance had almost 
been completed when Signor Crispi came into office, and 
under him the treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, 
was signed. It has to be renewed from time to time, and 
has been so during the present year (1896). It places all 
central Europe as a barrier between Russia and France, — 
powers which, although they are said to have no counter 
alliance on paper, are understood to be in accord. The 
Emperor William says that the Triple Alliance preserves 
peace. If it does so, it is at a cost equal to that of war, — 
a cost prolonged from year to year, whereas war is soon 
over; and in Europe, though a heavy burden is laid on 
future years, countries are not so overwhelmingly borne down 
by an extravagant pension list as our own. 

To make such a league as the Triple Alliance, presumes 
an enemy, or enemies, against whom it has been formed ; 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 39 1 

and that enemy naturally views with hostility the parties 
who make the league. In this case the feeling of hostility 
existing naturally between France and Germany could 
hardly be increased ; Austria entered the league as a silent 
partner ; besides which, her foe. in case of war, would be, 
not France but Russia. The wrath of France has therefore 
fallen upon Italy. In 1889 she broke off commercial rela- 
tions with her, greatly to the disadvantage of both countries ; 
she hurries on her fortifications and improvements at 
Biserta, which will make that naval station, within ninety 
miles of Sicily, the finest in the Mediterranean ; and, above 
all, there is growing up between the two nations a bitter 
national dislike, which loses no opportunity of displaying 
itself in petty ways. 

The extreme Left in the Italian Parliament has, on the 
other hand, political sympathies with the French Republic ; 
it cherishes a traditional hatred of Austria, and aspires to 
the annexation of the Trentino and Trieste, which are 
entirely loyal to the Austrian Emperor, but which would 
give Italy the frontier of the Alps complete. With that 
frontier and Nice, Italy would, as she expresses herself, hold 
the keys of her own house, and be almost as safe as if she 
were an island, though she has a very extended sea-board. 
If, in case of war, the fleets of France and Russia should 
attack her coasts, she may heartily wish she had remained 
a neutral power, and had not provoked hostility by allying 
herself to their foes. 

The Triple Alliance binds the three powers, — Germany, 
Italy, and Austro-Hungary, — to keep their armies and 
nations on a war-footing, and to hold in readiness vast 
reserves. 

The available forces of the Triple Alliance, in the event 
of being at once called into action were, according to Mr. 
Probyn (or rather Signor Bodio, from whom his statistics 
are taken) , as follows : Germany, one million men ; Austro- 
Hungary, nine hundred and forty thousand ; Italy, six 
hundred and ten thousand, — with reserves of about seven 
million men for Germany, nearly two millions for Austro- 



392 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Hungary, and more than two and a half millions for Italy. 
Whittaker's almanac, however, speaks of the Italian forces 
in 1895 as considerably more. The army, now on a war- 
footing, he places at 839,354. 

The navy, assuredly the most important branch of the war 
service for Italy, consisted in 1891 of two hundred and 
sixty-nine ships, — eighteen of them enormous iron-clads, 
with torpedo boats, etc., in proportion. These are manned 
by about twenty thousand men. Naples is fast becoming 
the chief naval and military port of the kingdom. 

These expensive armaments have at least the merit of 
introducing ideas of discipline and nationality among the 
peasantry of remote districts. " But the sight of Europe, 
thus armed to the teeth," says Mr. Probyn, " with its people 
ever more and more heavily burdened in consequence, 
gives a handle to the propagators of anarchy, and is only a 
sorrow and a hindrance to the advocates of a wise and 
reasonable progress, by which anarchy and violence are best 
resisted and defeated." 

It must be acknowledged that in 1861, when Victor 
Emmanuel was first saluted King of Italy, ports, roads, and 
railways were all wanting to the young nation, and all had 
to be provided. Sanitary measures and modern improve- 
ments of all kinds had to be introduced into the cities, and 
an immense amount of work has been done, as well as 
money expended, in these ways. It is, indeed, acknowl- 
edged that much of the money spent, especially on rail- 
roads, has been wasted upon small branch-lines, not likely 
to pay, and of little sendee, but whose promoters have 
obtained appropriations from the State to advance their 
own interest or that of some petty locality. 

The kingdom of Italy began its career with a forced 
paper currency. This was abandoned in 1886 ; and deficits 
made by the change, and by the abolition of the grist-tax so 
hateful to the peasantry, were made up by a loan, raised in 
London, by Finance Minister Magliani, who succeeded in 
impressing his optimistic views of Italy's prosperity and 
future progress on those who had money to advance in that 




THE PRINCE OF NAPLES. 



KING HUMBERT AND HIS REIGN. 393 

way. Italy has recently returned to her paper currency. 
The circulating medium is now paper lire, and the paper on 
which the notes are printed is so flimsy that they crease 
and fall to pieces in the purse. 

Meantime, primary education is doing its work among 
the masses, and Italian writers and scientists are more 
and more numerous. Intellectual life in Italy has cer- 
tainly not stood still within the last twenty years, though 
no world-famous books during that time have been 
published. 

The Crispi ministry was shaken out of office in 1892 by 
the scandals that followed an examination of the affairs of 
the Banco Romano. It soon came back to power, however, 
Crispi being what some one has called him, an " indispen- 
sable man." The terrible disasters in Abyssinia, to which 
will be devoted our next chapter, broke up his cabinet 
again in March of this year (1896). He has been 
succeeded by the Marquis di Rudini, who is also a 
Sicilian. 

We ask ourselves, How can Italy escape the consequences 
of her engagement to the Triple Alliance, — the Dreibund ? 
To renounce it would be to make for herself two very 
powerful enemies ; to continue it, is still more to impover- 
ish her people, and a State staggering under taxation never 
can make progress. Is the Triple Alliance really a league 
to promote peace? It certainly does not do so among the 
populations who murmur under the sacrifices and privations 
it entails. Italy is not the only country which carries on 
her shoulders an Old Man of the Sea whom she cannot get 
rid of. But there is a burden from which Italy may release 
herself, and she seems to be preparing to do so at the 
present moment. Mr. Grant Duff, writing about her twenty 
years ago, said : " Italy, if she does not go forth in search of 
new adventures, which I trust she is very unlikely to do, 
has every chance of a future which will compensate her for 
all the miseries of the past." May we not say the same 
thing of her now? She has had experience of "new 
adventures," and has paid dearly for them; is it too 



394 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

much to hope that she will now learn a lesson from the 
bees, whom Archbishop Leighton tells us to take for our 
example, since, " when it is foul weather abroad, they are 
most busy in their hive." It is not foreign policy that will 
make Italy prosperous and great, but close attention to all 
that will diffuse health, wealth, and contentment among 
her people. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 

T TALY claims that her explorers in the seventeenth cen- 
■*■ tury were the first to penetrate into central Africa, and 
to bring the world news of the great city of Timbuctoo ; 
and when the European Powers in 1884 endeavored to 
mark out what were called " spheres of influence " on the 
map of Africa, so as to come to an understanding concern- 
ing the future division of Africa among themselves (Africa 
not being at this time a " sick man," but a child who had 
not arrived at years of discretion), Italy desired to have 
her share. She would probably have renounced colonial 
ambition had the treaty of Berlin given her the Alps for a 
frontier, restored her Nice, or made over to her the old 
Venetian province of Dalmatia ; but disappointed in these 
plans, she fixed her hopes on Africa. Tunis was what she 
wished for. France had by treaty bound herself not to 
enlarge the limits of Algeria — either on the east, to the 
prejudice of Tunis, or on the west, to the prejudice of 
Morocco. Not a thousand Frenchmen were in Tunis, 
while Italians there numbered fifteen thousand, and had built 
a railroad between Tunis and Goletta. With these things in 
their favor, they bided their time. 

A miserable Arab tribe living in Tunis, finding scant pas- 
ture for their flocks during the dry season strayed over into 
Algeria. This was at once made a pretext for a French 
advance into their country. French forces marched at 
once to Tunis, and imposed a French protectorate upon the 
Bey. Italy made bitter complaints to the European Powers. 



396 ITALY IN THE A r WETEENTH CENTURY. 

She turned Benedetto Cairoli out of office for a want of diplo- 
matic forethought, and she set herself to seek compensation 
to balance the new acquisition of her rival. This is the 
modern spirit of international policy, — the very spirit of 
our nursery and childish days. "You gave him a bit 
of cake; now you've got to give me one, to make us 
even." 

Italy has never ceased to remember that her language is 
the language of commerce in the Levant, having been that 
of those princely traffickers, the Venetians, whose sails for 
three centuries whitened the eastern waters of the Medi- 
terranean ; while, as far back as the thirteenth century, 
Venice had extended her commerce to the shores of the 
Red Sea, having commercial agents at Suakin, Massowah, 
and Mocha, who forwarded Indian products to Cairo, and 
thence to Europe via Alexandria. 

In 1870 the Italian government sent a traveller named 
Sapeto to Africa, who obtained from a local petty prince, 
the Sultan Berehan, permission to make a settlement on an 
island in the Bay of Assab, not far from the Strait of Bab-el- 
Mandeb ; while at the same time a portion of the coast was 
leased by the Italians from another local sultan, which in- 
cluded Ras Buia, which they made the capital of their little 
acquisition. In 1879 an Italian fleet was sent into those 
waters ostensibly to promote commerce and science. The 
commander easily induced Sultan Berehan to sell some 
more territory to the Italians, renouncing all rights over it 
for himself and his successors. In this way Italy obtained 
all the islands in the Bay of Assab, and a considerable strip 
of coast-line, lying south of Abyssinia, in 1880, some years 
previous to her acquisition of that province, north of Abys- 
sinia, now called Eritrea. 

For many years the barren strip of coast-line lying be- 
tween Egypt and Abyssinia had been claimed by both. In 
1876 a large army was sent against the Abyssinians by 
Ismail Pasha, who thought the time propitious for asserting 
his claims. This army, though it contained several Euro- 
pean and American officers, was defeated and driven back ; 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 397 

and troubles multiplied so speedily around Ismail that no 
second expedition was planned. 

In 1885, after the death of Gordon and the failure of the 
English expedition to bring away the garrisons at Khartoum, 
Kassala, and Sennar, the English, in virtue of the position 
they held as arbiters of the policy of Egypt, resolved to 
abandon the Soudanese provinces. King John was then 
King of Abyssinia and indebted to the English for his ele- 
vation to the throne. There was no hope for the Egyptian 
garrisons in Kassala and Sennar unless he would suffer 
them to retreat unmolested through Abyssinia to Massowah. 
An embassy was sent into Abyssinia by the English govern- 
ment, entreating this permission, and promising that the 
Egyptian troops should in return deliver up to the king all 
their ammunition and guns. 

After the abandonment of the Soudan, Egypt no longer 
cared to hold Massowah. The European Powers did not 
wish to have it fall into the hands of the King of Abyssinia, 
and it was offered to Italy. 

The intention of the Italian government when it made its 
first acquisition of territory on the shores of the Red Sea, 
was simply to found one or more commercial stations ; but 
events hurried the colony into new responsibilities. The 
Abyssinians, who had been newly armed by the weapons 
surrendered to them by the Egyptian garrisons of Sennar 
and Kassala, were regarding the Italians in Massowah with 
a jealous eye. The French too, who had their tiny settle- 
ment of Obok to the south of the Italian colony on the Bay 
of Assab, were anxious for territorial expansion ; and Italy 
very soon perceived that, to hold Massowah, it would be 
necessary to come into conflict with the rulers of Abyssinia. 

In 1883 a massacre of an Italian caravan took place at 
Beillut. In 1884 three Italian travellers, Bianchi, and two 
others, who had gone to the scene of the massacre hoping 
to recover the remains of the victims, met the same fate. 
Another Italian party under Captain Giullietti was similarly 
cut off when on an exploring expedition in southern Abys- 
sinia. Meantime, there were complaints on the part ' of 



3 :> S IT A L 1 " IX THE XIX E TEEXTH CE1 VT I « J '. 

Abyssinia that the Italians had not carried out the pro- 
visions of the treaty made through Admiral Sir William 
Hewett, which gave them possession of Massowah, but were 
levying custom dues on goods brought from the interior 
which it had been stipulated should be dun- free. King 
John, however, never really admitted the right of the Ital- 
ians to be in Massowah at all. He stoutly maintained, on 
the contrary, that Massowah, and all the southwestern coasts 
of the Red Sea. had for centuries belonged to Abyssinia. 
In the sixteenth century the Porks had, indeed, driven the 
Abyssinians :::::. Zeha ::.'. Mass:-"--. :..:'. /.:.:. :.~.iti these 
seaports to the possessions of the House of Othman. In 
i $66 Massowah was transferred by the Porte to the Khedive 
of Egypt for a tribute of sixteen thousand pounds a year ; 
but the King of Abyssinia urged that, during the three hun- 
dred years of Turkish occupation, his ancestors had never 
given up their claim to the ports on the Red Sea, and that 
the Turks held them only by the power of the sword. 

The irritation created by these causes rapidly increased, 
and reached a dangerous point when the Italians, in order 
to protect the caravan road between Massowah and the 
interior, on which murder and brigandage had become so 
common as almost to put a stop to trade, sent a couple 
of battalions to take possession of Sahati, a place about 
ten miles from Monkullu, the coast suburb of Massowah, 
which is built upon a coral island a short distance from the 
shore. 

Abyssinia is a sort of federal empire. The country is 
divided into provinces or kingdoms, each nominally gov- 
erned by its own prince, who is usually governed by his 
prime minister. The federated kingdoms are three in 
number. — Tigre. Amkara, and Shoa. These, again, are sub- 
divided into districts, each with its own governor ; while in 
the districts rale many lesser chiefs, each with his own fol- 
lowing. Over all is the Emperor or Negus, to whom the 
sub-kings pay tribute. They are bound to follow him to 
war, and are in turn followed by their subordinates, — as 
kings and barons were in Europe in feudal times. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 399 

In 1890 the Great Powers of Europe made over to Italy 
the protectorate of Abyssinia and to France the protec- 
torate of Madagascar ; that is, so far as concerned the for- 
eign relations of Madagascar and Abyssinia, — much the 
same arrangement as gave England authority to conduct 
the foreign relations of the South African republic of the 
Transvaal. The Queen of Madagascar never consented to 
this arrangement, and the Negus of Abyssinia vehemently 
declaimed against it. 

The original idea of the Italian government was to make 
friends, and not enemies, of the native tribes. Instead, how- 
ever, of forming treaties of friendship with them, as had been 
originally proposed, and peaceably exchanging European 
commodities for their products, or for coins of gold and 
silver, Italy was led step by step into taking military pos- 
session of what is now called Eritrea, which has as yet 
yielded her little or no profit, and has cost her millions of 
money and thousands of brave men's lives. 

I have elsewhere 1 told of the English expedition into 
Abyssinia in 1868 under Sir Robert Napier, who destroyed 
King Theodore's hill fortress of Magdala. I then quoted 
Mr. Henry M. Stanley's account of the march. I venture 
to repeat it here : — 

" Imagine three regiments, — two white, one dusky, — with 
miles of artillery, baggage-waggons, mules, and followers crawl- 
ing after them, passing over mountains high as Mont Cenis, to 
halt at a point seventy-five hundred feet above the sea, — moun- 
tains behind, before, and around ; mountains all conical, look- 
ing as if they belonged to another world : and, at the halt, only 
one wretched spring to be found, its water loaded, as such water 
always is, with the seeds of dysentery. It is hard to paint the 
frantic scene, — the rush to the spring, the confusion that fol- 
lowed, the trampling through the water, the angry craving of 
parched soldiers, and followers, and worn-out beasts." 

And the men of the English army had met upon this 
toilsome march no foe to fire down on them from behind 
rocks and bushes. King Theodore had intrenched himself 

1 Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 227-249. 



400 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

at Magdala, and Ras Kassa (subsequently King John), 
through whose country they were passing, was their friend. 
Ras Alaia, ruler of the province of Tigre, and a success- 
ful warrior, had led an expedition against the Dervishes, 
who on the evacuation of Kassala took possession of it, but 
he failed to recover the city. Returning home, he found 
the Italians in possession of Sahati, ten miles, as I have said, 
from Massowah. He determined to assume the offensive, 
and in January, 1887, made an attack on the Italian works. 
His assault was unsuccessful ; but the following day he in- 
tercepted a small body of four hundred and eighty men on 
their way to reinforce the garrison of Sahati, which was still 
threatened by the Ras with ten thousand men. I will take 
an account of this massacre from Sir Gerald Portal's very 
interesting book, " My Mission to Abyssinia," published in 
1892. 1 In 1887, a few months after the affair of Dogali, he 
passed over the spot, and thus he describes what he saw and 
heard there : — 

" After a couple of hours' good travelling from Monkullu we 
found ourselves passing through the now famous plain of Do- 
gali, where the unfortunate Italian half-battalion of four hundred 
and eighty men had been annihilated by Ras Alala while on 
their way from Monkullu to relieve the garrison of Sahati. The 
place itself consists of a small plain, with a circular knoll in its 
centre about one hundred and fifty feet high, but commanded 
on every side, as was the whole plain, by a complete circle 
of volcanic hills. The path to Sahati enters this plain by a nar- 
row gorge, passes the knoll, and leaves the plain by another 
narrow gorge. On the day of the massacre the Abyssinians 
were lying hidden on all these hills, but made no sign of their 
existence till the Italians were well within the circle of hills, and 
on the plain. The Italians, with the confidence of inexperience, 
and with misplaced contempt for the intelligence of their enemy, 
had no scouts or skirmishers, nor had they taken any steps 

1 I am greatly indebted to the pen of Sir Gerald Portal for much 
that is contained in this chapter; and also for his reports published 
in English Blue Books when I was writing, in " Europe in Africa," 
the story of Uganda. I was very sorry when news of his early death 
reached me. He died of African fever. I am also indebted in this 
chapter to some interesting articles in the "Nation." — E. W. L. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 40 1 

to ascertain that the hills were unoccupied. Hardly had the 
head of the Italian column reached the centre of the plain when 
the rattle of musketry was heard, and a shower of bullets was 
thrown among them from the rear. The Italians faced round, 
and answered their unseen enemy with volleys from their Wet- 
terli rifles ; but so well were the Abyssinians concealed that 
there was nothing to fire at except occasional little clouds of smoke, 
whereas the European soldiers on the bare and open plain 
offered a mark which could with difficulty be missed. Then 
was heard another volley, and another shower of bullets from the 
hills on the right, — and yet another from the left, from the front, 
from the rear. Verily the devoted band of Italians were caught 
in a cruel trap ! Their men fell fast ; in vain they tried to take 
shelter behind the knoll in the midst of the plain. Even there, 
if screened from one side, they were exposed to the fire from all 
the other hills. They continued their advance ; but the hail of 
bullets became thicker. Few — very few — were now unhurt, 
and still nothing to fire at except those puffs of smoke. Ah ! 
how those doomed and desperate men must have longed to see 
the face of an enemy ; to have something tangible before them, 
instead of those incessant puffs of smoke from behind a distant 
bush or rock, too often followed by a thud, a groan, and the fall 
of a comrade ! What a relief it must have been to the few still 
surviving, even though they knew it was their death-signal, when 
at last from every hill, from behind every rock, and from every 
side, there burst forth a cloud of fierce and dusky warriors, in 
red and white robes, casting, away their guns and rifles, and 
whirling down to complete their work with sharp spear and 
glittering sword ! It must have been soon over. At the mo- 
ment of the final attack there were scarce thirty Italians able to 
wield a rifle. Their fate was never in doubt from the begin- 
ning ; but they died fighting like men, and left their mark on 
many a soldier of Ras Alala's army. Subsequently I met and 
conversed with many of Ras Alala's soldiers who had taken 
part in this action, or massacre ; they all had but one answer 
as to the conduct of the Italian troops upon that fateful day, 
that ' they fought like real devils till the last man fell. ' " 

Two days later the garrison of Sahati was withdrawn to 
Massowah, without meeting with opposition. Sir Gerald 
adds : — 

" This battle, or rather massacre, of Dogali may be looked 
upon as the beginning of all the Italian troubles on the Red Sea 

26 



402 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

coast, and in what is called in Italy the colony of Eritrea. 
Few people could then foresee how far-reaching would be its 
consequences, or how much it would eventually cost to the over- 
burdened tax-payers of Italy ; but even at the moment it was 
impossible, while admiring the courage and devotion shown 
by the Italian soldiers, to avoid criticising the rashness and 
over-confidence which allowed this half-battalion to be caught 
in a veritable rat-trap. It is the old, old story, — contempt of a 
gallant enemy because his skin happens to be chocolate, or 
brown, or black, and because his men have not gone through 
orthodox courses of field-firing, battalion-drill, or 'autumn 
manoeuvres.' " 

It is impossible to describe the cry for vengeance that 
went up when news of this massacre reached Italy. Pre- 
parations were at once made for an expedition on a large 
scale to inflict signal punishment on the Abyssinians. 
Massowah and its suburb Monkullu were both strongly for- 
tified, and measures were taken to send at once by sea 
twenty or thirty thousand men to the scene of action. But 
the season for active operations was diminishing day by day, 
and more prudent counsels began to be listened to. " Men 
began to inquire more closely into the matter, and to count 
the cost ; and as they did so the serious nature of the un- 
dertaking that lay before Italy became more and more 
apparent. A war of revenge could bring but little practical 
benefit, and would cost many millions of dollars, and prob- 
ably thousands of valuable lives. In the meantime, Italy's 
action in Europe would be cramped proportionately to the 
magnitude of her task in Africa ; and in the actual situation 
of European politics in 1887 it was most desirable, and 
might even at any moment become imperative, that the 
hands of Italy should be free." 

Italy therefore consented to a proposal that an English 
embassy should be sent to King John to propose to him 
terms of peace, — it being supposed that English influence 
would be stronger with him than that of any other nation, 
since it was indirectly due to English influence and to gifts 
of military stores from Lord Napier in 1868 that he had risen 
from the position of Prince Kassa, Ras of Tigr£, to sit as em- 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 403 

peror' on the Abyssinian throne. Unhappily the influence of 
England was not invoked till nine months after the massacre 
of Dogali, when both parties had made preparations for war, 
and King John would have incurred a great loss of popular- 
ity among his warriors had he balked them of their chance 
of attacking white men, rich in all that is most valuable to 
a semi-civilized soldier. 

An Italian senator, who has written a book on " Gli 
Intend Politici dei Diversi Stati d' Europa," quotes Marshal 
von Moltke, who advises Italy to strengthen her alliance 
with England on all questions relating to the Mediterranean, 
and with Germany on all those relating to Continental 
affairs. He insists that if Italy expects help in time of need 
from England, she must embrace any opportunity that 
offers of lending what aid she can to England in her Afri- 
can affairs. But when he spoke, Von Moltke did not fore- 
see that Italy, impoverished, might prove unable to give 
such aid as she would gladly offer. Meantime, in Africa 
England has always to the present day been Italy's good 
friend. 

A mission was therefore sent to King John and to Ras 
Alala bearing presents and letters from the Queen and Lord 
Salisbury ; and the gentleman charged with this difficult 
and very dangerous mission was Sir Gerald Portal (then 
Mr. Portal), of her Majesty's legation at Cairo, subse- 
quently agent and consul-general at Zanzibar. It was the 
close of October, 1887, when Mr. Portal set out on his 
embassy. He took with him only two Europeans, — his 
friend Major Beech, and his excellent servant, Hutchinson. 
Mules and mule-drivers, a guide and interpreters, were pro- 
cured at Monkullu. The Italian government promised to 
abstain from acts of overt hostility for five weeks ; but in 
that time it was very clear to Mr. Portal that he could not 
reach the interior of Abyssinia and return. 

I may here say, en passant, that, during the absence of 
the embassy, Captain Lugard, since so well known in Africa, 
arrived in the Italian camp, hoping to be received as a 
volunteer. The Italians, however, refused his services, and 



404 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

he went forward to commence his splendid African career 
as an elephant hunter in Nyassaland. He speaks with 
admiration of the zeal, skill, and patience shown by Italian 
soldiers in digging earthworks and making fortifications, for 
which in the Italian service the regular soldiers, not sappers 
and miners, are employed. 

Between the Italian outpost at Sahati and the forces of 
Ras Alala, encamped on the high plateau of Asmara, lay a 
sort of No Man's Land, given up to marauding parties 
and professional Arab robbers. Here is a description of 
the journey as they scrambled up to the camping-ground 
of the Ras Alala : " All through the night our unfortunate 
mules were clambering over impossible rocks, slipping and 
sliding down precipitous ravines, forcing their way through 
dense masses of unyielding mimosa thorns, and climbing 
range after range of black rocky mountains, on which no 
beast of burden but an Abyssinian mule could even obtain a 
foothold, while the mountains seemed to grow steeper and 
the country more parched as we went on." 

The expedition, after incredible sufferings from thirst, heat, 
and fatigue, when their mouths and tongues grew black, at 
last reached Asmara, where on a plateau on the top of a 
mountain had been erected an immense earthen or mud 
pyramid, on which Ras Alala's own two large round huts 
were placed, and from which he could look down on the 
plain dotted with his troops, like an eagle from its eyrie. 
The Ras was bitterly opposed to their mission, and affected 
to believe that they were spies in the interest of the Italians. 
He held them prisoners for ten days, and then only suffered 
them to proceed on receiving the direct commands of his 
emperor. He put all kinds of obstacles in the way of their 
further progress, dreading apparently that the letters of the 
Queen and Lord Salisbury which Mr. Portal was charged 
to deliver might contain something about the massacre of 
Dogali which would irritate the king against him. 

The king was on the march with from seventy thousand 
to eighty thousand followers, soldiers, or attendants, when 
the mission met him ; and Mr. Portal, putting on his diplo- 




FRANCESCO CRISPI. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 405 

matic finery, prepared himself to present his queen's letters 
to his majesty King Johannes, whose official title was the 
King of Kings of Ethiopia and King of Sion. The king 
received the embassy with civility ; but they soon found 
that the greater part of his chiefs were of the opinion of 
Ras Alala, — that is, that they should be treated as enemies, 
loaded with chains, and decapitated secretly at a convenient 
season. They were detained as prisoners while their fate 
was under discussion, nearly all the chief men being against 
them ; but King John stood their friend. 

At Mr. Portal's first diplomatic interview, the king told 
him frankly that he could not grant peace on the Italians' 
terms. "By the treaty made by Admiral Hewett," he said, 
" all the country evacuated by the Egyptians on my frontier 
was ceded to me at the instigation of England, and now 
you come to ask me to give it up again." Mr. Portal re- 
marked that no mention was made of Sahati or Wia in the 
treaty, that these places were necessary to the protection of 
Monkullu and Massowah, and that the king had already 
accepted the Italian occupation of those places. The king 
replied : " I did not give the Italians Massowah ; the Eng- 
lish gave it to them. I will not give them one inch of 
land. If they cannot live in Massowah and its suburb with- 
out Sahati, let them go." The interview ended by the 
king's repeating that he would give up nothing, but would 
stand by the treaty made with Admiral Hewett three years 
before. 

The embassy marched as prisoners with the army. At 
last, on Dec. 16, 1887, the king sent for Mr. Portal for a 
final interview, and gave him permission to carry back his 
answers to the English Queen and Premier. The interview 
over, Mr. Portal was beckoned into a smaller tent, and 
he amusingly describes what took place there : — 

" I found a complete toilette set out for me. I was first asked 
to take off my uniform coat, and to put on a pink-silk embroid- 
ered shirt reaching to my knees; over this was draped a 
1 shamma 1 of fine gauzy cotton, with a broad band of embroid- 
ery round the edges ; and then over my shoulders was placed a 



406 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

fine lion' mane as a sort of tippet, the front part being deco- 
rated with gold filigree work, to which the forelegs were fast- 
ened and hung down in front, while the hindlegs dangled down 
my back. A long sword in a velvet and gold scabbard was 
then tightly buckled to my right hip ; a shield covered with 
silver and gold plaques was hung on my left arm, and a long 
spear was placed in that hand. Finally a gold ornament in the 
shape of a double triangle was hung about my neck ; and thus 
attired I entered the presence of the king for the last time." 



This apparel cost him great embarrassment when he had 
to mount a beautiful Abyssinian horse with splendid hous- 
ings, mounting in the Abyssinian fashion on the right side, 
like the illustrious Mr. Winkle ; but it served him in good 
stead when he presented himself thus apparelled to Ras 
Alala, who could not resist this ocular demonstration of the 
favor of the king. After adventures, some of them more 
dangerous and exciting than those in the first part of their 
journey, they reached the Italian outpost Sahati on Christ- 
mas morning, and were received with great rejoicings by 
their Italian friends. 

Nothing, one way or the other, came of the embassy. 
King John, at the head of his immense horde, found, when 
he reached the neighborhood of the Italian outposts, that 
the land was too poor to support his army. He also re- 
ceived news of the death of his only son in southern Abys- 
sinia. Further news soon reached him that the Dervishes 
had attacked an Abyssinian army on the southwest, and had 
overpowered his followers. He marched at once against 
them with a large part of the force intended to operate 
against the Italians. A fierce battle was fought. The Abys- 
sinians won the victory, and the contest seemed to be over, 
when King John was struck by a Dervish bullet, and the 
next morning died. Losing all heart, the Abyssinians flung 
away their victory and dispersed ; even the coffin and dead 
body of their king fell into the hands of followers of the 
Mahdi, and were carried to Omdurman. The Abyssinians 
rallied after this, and drove the Mahdists over their 
frontier. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 407 

u The death of King John was the signal for the outbreak 
of a general civil war. The Italians at Massowah were for- 
gotten. The succession to the throne was at once claimed 
by three or four powerful rivals. The most important of 
these was Menelik, king of Shoa, an extensive province 
joining the southern border of Abyssinia proper. Although 
a vassal of King John, to whom he paid a heavy tribute. 
Menelik had for a long time been in the pay of the Italian 
government. Italy, therefore, officially supported his candi- 
dature, and supplied him liberally with rifles, ammunition, 
money, and European advisers." Thus strengthened, Men- 
elik advanced northward into Abyssinia, and after two years 
of desultory fighting, skirmishing, promising, and bribing, 
he succeeded in getting his authority at least partially ac- 
knowledged by rather more than half his countrymen. 

Meantime, the Italians, encouraged by the situation, ad- 
vanced their outposts and took possession of the plateau of 
Asmara, the camping-ground of Ras Alala. There they 
formed a military post, and proceeded to make preparations 
for advancing farther into the country. 

Meantime, in 1889, by a new shuffle of the cards in the 
hands of European diplomatists, Italy was accorded all 
Abyssinia as her "sphere of influence," — the object of 
England, Germany, and Austria being to keep that country 
out of the hands of the French, who showed signs of extend- 
ing their territorial possessions beyond Obok, and of Rus- 
sia, which had all along held certain relations with Abyssinia 
as a Christian country whose church had in past ages ac- 
cepted laws from the Byzantine fathers. A large tract of 
country running straight inland from Massowah was in those 
years of comparative peace declared an Italian crown colony, 
and received the name of Eritrea (Erythrea) . In those years 
also a railroad was constructed from Massowah and Mon- 
kullu to Sahati, and then on to Ailet and towards Keren, — 
so that the No Man's Land, between hostile outposts, trav- 
elled by night, swiftly and in silence, by Mr. Portal and his 
party for fear of brigands and scouting-parties, is safe for the 
most unprotected traveller. The present Negus, Menelik, 



408 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

claims descent, like his predecessors, from Solomon and the 
Queen of Sheba; "and," says Mr. Portal, concluding his 
narrative. " though the question of the wisdom or unwisdom 
of the whole of the colonial policy of Italy on the eastern 
shores of the Red Sea is not one which it behooves me to 
discuss, I may say that, in assuming the protectorate of the 
whole of Abyssinia, Italy has undertaken a task of great diffi- 
culty and responsibility., in the performance of which she 
may rind obstacles placed in her way by nations of Africa, 
and by nations of Europe as well." 

As soon as Menelik found himself upon his throne he 
sent word to Ras Alala that he wished him to resign the 
kingly position of Ras of Tigre. Ras Alala was a man of 
low birth, who by his brave and successful campaigns against 
the enemies of King John had obtained great influence, and 
was made ras, though he was never crowned king. When 
Menelik summoned him to resign his province in favor of 
Ras Mangashah, a son of King John by a concubine, he 
was naturally indignant, and took to the mountains with the 
chiefs who adhered to him. 

Such was the state of affairs in Eritrea and Abyssinia at 
the opening of the yeai [893. Bat things changed ± :eatly 
during that year. General Oreste Baratieri was made 
governor of the colony. A large army of natives (called 
Ankars by the Italians) had been organized, and under 
Italian officers was becoming a very efficient arm of the 
service. A brave and formidable Arab tribe, the Hadindon, 
who under Osman Digna had fought the Anglo-Egyptians, 
had given in their adherence to the Italians. General Ba- 
ratieri had undertaken strongly to fortify Agordat. a place 
unheard-of in Europe till 1890, when two companies of 
native regulars surprised a column of Dervishes, and fought 
them with a steadiness and bravery that made a great im- 
pression on the Italians and other Europeans. General 
Baratieri, now that the western frontier of Eritrea extended 
into the Soudan, undertook to take possession of Kassala. 
The object of this was to prevent its falling into the hands 
of the Der rishes, who would have found such a stronghold 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 409 

a valuable possession, whence they could have raided and 
threatened the surrounding country. Many protests were 
made in Italy against this extension of Eritrea's western 
frontier ; but Baratieri defended it on the ground of its 
being needful for security, though on military grounds the 
occupation was unintelligible. 

Ras Mangashah, too, who in the early months of 1890 lost 
no opportunity of expressing friendliness to the Italians, was 
understood at the beginning of 1895 to be preparing to 
invade their colony. There was in General Baratieri' s 
mind little doubt that Mangashah was acting on an under- 
standing with King Menelik, and he thought it to be his 
duty to repel and chastise any chief who invaded what he held 
to be Italian territory. By some wonderful strategical move- 
mente he won victories over the Dervishes at Coatit and 
Senate. He was well aware, however, that the party in the 
Italian parliament which opposed colonial extension would 
not fail to blame his action. " I have done my duty ; but 
if I succumb, no one will compassionate my death, or defend 
me if I survive." These words are pathetic, looked at in 
the light of late events, but in 1894 Baratieri was a popular 
hero. " The government summoned him to Italy in July, 
1895, an d he remained there till September, when he was 
recalled by despatches from Colonel Arimondi, which 
warned him of the hostile attitude of the Abyssinians. 
One of two courses was then open to the Italians, — either 
to insist on the total abandonment of the two great prov- 
inces of Tigre and Agame, or to forward to Abyssinia im- 
mense reinforcements of money, arms, and men." But 
Signor Crispi and his government hesitated to take either 
of these courses. They could not bring themselves to give 
up provinces already announced in the Almanach de Gotha 
to be portions of Italian territory, — provinces whose acqui- 
sition had been made dear to Italians by highly creditable 
feats of arms ; but neither did it seem probable that the 
country, groaning under its financial difficulties, would 
patiently submit to increased burdens for colonial exten- 
sion in Africa. At that very moment the minister of 



410 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

finance had been congratulating himself and the coun- 
try that he had succeeded in laying the foundation for an 
equilibrium in the finances at some not very distant day. 

But there was one man who could not bring himself to 
believe that the sentiment of the country was decidedly 
against the prosecution of the war, — a war that had 
brought glory to the Italian arms and revived the mili- 
tary spirit of the Italian people. King Humbert, who had 
for years chafed against the inaction forced on him by his 
scrupulous adherence to the duties imposed on him as a 
constitutional king, felt the spirit of a soldier of Savoy stir 
in his blood. In his eyes, the prestige of his house and of 
his kingdom was closely associated with deeds of arms and 
military glory. He wished to show the world that Italy 
coul'd win victories, as much by the sword as by diplomacy ; 
and now as she was beginning to realize these hopes, it 
seemed hard to turn her back in her career. The result 
was that no definite decision was arrived at. General 
Baratieri went back to Massowah, where he was hailed 
with enthusiasm, and where news of the most important 
battle yet fought by Italians in Africa awaited him. 

It was the battle of Agordat, fought on the 2 1 st of De- 
cember. The fort was held by a garrison of two thousand 
men composed of eight companies of native troops, two 
squadrons of native cavalry, two batteries, and some 
Italians. A horde of Dervishes came down upon Agor- 
dat in a close column protected on the right wing by a 
large body of cavalry. Colonel Arimondi, who was in com- 
mand, decided to meet them in the open plain. Leaving 
half of his force to hold the fort, he advanced with four 
companies and a battery. The fight began at eleven o'clock 
in the day, and at first the immense numbers of the Der- 
vishes gave them the advantage. Seeing this, the reserves 
issued from the fort and fell on the right wing of the 
enemy. Their resistance was obstinate, and the battle 
lasted till three o'clock, the flying Dervishes being pursued 
for a considerable distance, and leaving the field of battle 
covered with their dead. The fight was a very brilliant one 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 4 1 1 

on the part of the Italians, but the people of Massowah in 
their delight magnified it in the most extraordinary degree. 

General Baratieri had brought back from his government 
in Italy vague promises of support. They wanted to give 
him men, money, and supplies ; but if they did, would 
not the public grumble at new taxes, and what would the 
minister of finance say? The telegraphic despatches ex- 
changed between Crispi and the general after his return to 
Massowah, and published in the Green Books (the Libri 
Verdi), are very sad reading. Crispi's are full of exhorta- 
tions to go on and conquer, but to spend as little money as 
possible ; Baratieri's are urgent appeals for supplies. He 
knew that Menelik was joining all the forces of his kingdom 
to those of Mangashah. In one despatch Crispi suggests to 
the general to make war like Napoleon, and let the country 
support his soldiers. Baratieri replies that the country is 
too poor to support its own inhabitants. In one of his 
despatches Crispi makes so sure of victory that he wants to 
discuss with the general who had best be the successor 
of King Menelik. No orders seem to have been precise ; 
no promises seem to have been fulfilled. " Go ahead, but 
don't spend money," seems to be the sum of what was 
said. 

Goaded by these telegrams, and by his own sense of the 
perils and responsibilities of his position, General Baratieri 
seems in a measure to have lost his head. He had encoun- 
tered and beaten the rear of Ras Mangashah's column at a 
place called Debra-Ailat, and seems to have considered 
that this victory gave him a firm hold on the great provinces 
of Tigre and Agame. The Italian Chamber of Deputies 
questioned the wisdom of this military occupation. The 
prime minister's answers " were curt and scornful. ' We are 
on the defensive,' he said; 'and if in defending ourselves 
we conquer, is this a crime? Are we to leave the field open 
to our enemy to come in and defeat us?' " One mem- 
ber accused the government of having totally changed the 
tenor of its instructions to General Baratieri ; and, indeed, 
when we read those instructions in the Green Books, the 



412 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

suggestions and orders given him seem to have changed 
day by day. 

A week later came news of the fight at Amba-Alagi, where 
a detached battalion of Italians was cut to pieces ; and 
Major Toselli, who commanded it, after sending away a 
remnant of his men under an aide-de-camp to seek safety, 
faced twenty thousand foes till he fell dead at his post. 
Twenty million lire was reluctantly voted for the war by 
the Chamber, even the supporters of the ministry putting a 
veto on any further policy of " expansion." 

The little force at Amba-Alagi was an outpost of General 
Baratieri's army, which he had not taken the precaution to 
call in, in the presence of an enemy with forty thousand 
well-armed men. The Abyssinian losses were greater than 
the entire force of the Italians, seven hundred of whom, 
under command of Major Toselli's aide-de-camp, escaped 
from the field, while a thousand lay dead among the corpses 
of their enemies. The remainder of the story, the terrible 
disaster in the battle of Abba Garima, I will tell in the 
words of a correspondent of the "Nation": — 

" It was now evident that Baratieri had become so physically, 
morally, and militarily demoralized that he was unfit for com- 
mand, and, but for considerations of his political influence, the 
ministry would have recalled him. He himself desired to 
resign; but the ministry contented itself with telling him to 
stand on the defensive. Meantime the Abyssinians took up a 
very strong position at Adowa. The Italian position was 
equally formidable, and there was a deep valley between them. 
The Italian troops reached their position after a long night 
march, weary and fasting, for three days before orders had 
been given to fall back, and all the provisions had been sent 
away to precede the retreat of the army. The officers did not 
know what to make of the indecision of the general. He seems 
to have been attacked by some illness, — something apparently 
like softening of the brain. He attacked the enemy in his 
strong position, and the result was the almost total destruction 
of the Italian army, the most disastrous defeat yet known in 
African wars. A report was published by the Italian govern* 
ment, drawn up on the evidence of some of the survivors, in 
which we find the following episode. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 413 

" Cut off (the enemy having broken through the centre), the 
Da Bormida brigade remained alone on the battlefield, fighting 
till night, bravely, heroically. Towards seven o'olock Da Bor- 
mida had sent up on a height to the left, perhaps to sustain 
General Albertone, the battalion of irregulars (that is, of native 
troops, fighting under their own chiefs and after their own mode 
of warfare). The battalion fought for half an hour against 
overwhelming forces, and then was obliged to retire with heavy 
loss. Two battalions sent to its support could not fire effec- 
tively without hitting our own men. Then Da Bormida, seeing 
that great masses of the enemy were moving on him from the 
right, attacked them, deployed, repulsed them, and advanced 
nearly to the camps of the commanders of the Abyssinians. 
For the moment our men believed that they had won the vic- 
tory ; but the enemy always increasing, General Da Bormida 
ordered a retreat in a direction diverging from the centre, and 
effected it in echelon with counter attacks at the point of the 
bayonet. The artillery had fired all its ammunition, and the 
infantry exhausted nearly all its cartridges. Da Bormida fell 
riddled with balls." 

It was said by the officers who last saw their general, 
that when he gave the order to retreat, he said calmly, 
" Go on, my lads. I shall stay here," — and, lighting a 
cigar, he faced the enemy, and was shot down. 

" The force of the Abyssinian army in this battle, called by 
some Abba Garima, was six times that of the Italian, which 
had marched all night by moonlight, twenty miles, over a 
country cut up by ravines, mostly unreconnoitred, and so diffi- 
cult that in places it was necessary to take the guns from the 
mules' backs and carry them by hand ; while the whole army 
had been three days on short rations, owing to the provision 
reserves having been sent away. . . . The enormous superi- 
ority in numbers of the Abyssinians enabled them to outflank 
the Italians and to attack the reserve before it had formed or 
extricated itself from the ravines, and threw it into confusion, 
— all the greater because they were led to suppose that the 
main body in front, which was for a time victorious, had been 
annihilated. In confusion this portion of the army retreated, 
being the only division that moved from its position without 
orders to retreat, in spite of losses in the others in actual fight- 
ing quite unprecedented in modern warfare, except at Amba- 
Alagi. Several battalions were practically annihilated without 



414 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

moving from their positions, three-fourths of the officers falling, 
out of the total number in the battle." 

Two thousand six hundred prisoners remained in King 
Menelik's hands. Intense was the indignation in Italy. 
The country was distracted with rival recriminations. Peas- 
ants in some places tore up the rails to prevent the depar- 
ture of soldiers, their friends and neighbors, who were 
ordered to Africa. General Baratieri was tried by court- 
martial, but acquitted as being the victim of circumstances. 
The court-martial took place at Massowah. Had the unfor- 
tunate general been brought to Italy during the first days 
of excitement he might have been torn to pieces. 

The Crispi ministry at once fell, and was succeeded by 
one formed by the Marquis di Rudini. He, like Signor 
Crispi is a Sicilian, but a man of a different type. 

" While the one represented in an unusual degree the Sicilian 
type of character, — vigorous, aggressive, domineering, and at 
times violent, — his successor, who comes of another social 
class, is reserved, self-controlled, dignified, and has already had 
experience in the position which he now holds. Ten years ago 
he made public a programme which included the abandonment 
of enterprises in Africa, and economy and vigilance in finance. 
He is known also to favor the policy of allying Italy as closely 
as possible to England, a country which he is said to admire 
greatly. His enemies call him irresolute ; his friends say he has 
the hand of steel in the glove of velvet. If he carry out his 
declared intentions he will minimize activity in Africa, enforce 
economies, give especial attention to the condition of affairs in 
Sicily and Sardinia, and follow more closely the lines of consti- 
tutional rule. But how far he will succeed in carrying out his 
own programme, in view of the various influences which will be 
brought to bear on him, remains to be seen." 

" The Massowah expedition," says the " Nation's " corre- 
spondent, " was a blunder from the beginning ; and so 
Crispi declared it when the first disaster in it called him to 
power ; but after the affair at Dogali, military honor seemed 
to forbid retreat, . . . and the same motive will make it 
hard for the Italians to withdraw now." 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 415 

This sentence was written early in April. Prudent coun- 
sels have since prevailed, and it has been decided to 
restrict Italian military enterprise strictly to the defence of 
the Italian colony. Aggressive operations in the " sphere 
of influence " have been renounced, and friendly powers are 
endeavoring to effect with Menelik a " peace with honor." 
Thus far the Christian barbarian has not proved tractable. 
The Italians still hold Kassala, which is nearly in a direct 
line west from Massowah, but very far in the interior. They 
have been encouraged to do this by the English, who con- 
ceived it might assist them in their present struggle with 
Africa. Before the Anglo-Egyptian march up the Nile 
began, the Italians were on the point of evacuating this 
outlying position, which was threatened by an immense 
horde of Dervishes ; but suddenly these were called off 
to reinforce Kalifa Abdulla, the present Mahdi, and to 
oppose the English advancing on Dongola. 

A few weeks ago, when negotiations with Menelik for the 
return of the two thousand six hundred Italian captives had 
produced no result, the " Osservatore Romano," the official 
organ of the Vatican, unexpectedly announced that " The 
Holy Father, Leo XIII., being affected by natural consid- 
eration for our prisoners in Africa, has adressed a letter to 
the Negus Menelik, asking for their restitution in pressing 
terms." This letter has been intrusted to Monsignor Cyrille 
Macaire, Patriarchal Vicar of the Copts of the Alexandrian 
mission, who set out at once upon his perilous embassy. 

In December, 1878, before Menelik became Negus, and 
when he was only King of Shoa, he sent to Leo XIII. , then 
recently made Pope, a letter of congratulation by the hands 
of Monsignor Massala (since cardinal), who was at that time 
Vicar Apostolic of the country of the Gallas, a province in 
southern Abyssinia peopled by Mahomedans, in which a 
very promising mission had been established by Jesuit 
fathers some years ago. Besides this, on the occasion of 
the Pope's jubilee, Menelik, in common with other poten- 
tates, sent him a gift, consisting of several valuable Abyssi- 
nian manuscripts, which are now preserved in the Vatican 



41 6 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

library. On both occasions the Pope expressed in his let- 
ters to the African prince his great pleasure and gratitude. 
The fact of these former relations between Pope Leo and 
the Negus might facilitate, it was hoped, the success of this 
new embassy. 

The general sentiment throughout Italy on receiving the 
news that the Pope would interpose in favor of Italian 
prisoners, was one of surprise, admiration, and gratitude. 
Of course, in the Chamber, where everything is turned by 
one party to the disadvantage of the other, there were not 
wanting deputies to say that the interference of the Pontiff 
in Italian affairs was a menace to the stability of the Italian 
kingdom, and to take it as an insult that the announcement 
of the Pontiff's intervention should have been made on a day 
sacred to the memory of Garibaldi, being the fourteenth 
anniversary of his death. The Marquis di Rudini, having 
been questioned in parliament as to whether he had re- 
ceived any notice of the Pope's intended action, replied 
that he had only learned of it from the " Osservatore 
Romano." He said that "his own feelings in the matter 
were simply that the act was one to inspire at once a senti- 
ment of gratitude. I believe," he added, " that the sovereign 
pontiff by doing this has obeyed a Christian sentiment and 
a feeling of humanity, both belonging to his sublime mis- 
sion, and that he has also displayed his feeling of affection 
for the Italian fatherland. If this has been the sentiment of 
the sovereign pontiff, the sentiment of the Italian govern- 
ment can only be that of profound gratitude." 

Thus, relieved from the complications and embarrassments 
of his position as a petty Italian prince, Leo XIII. assumes 
his place as the head of the largest division of the Christian 
Church throughout the world, and asserts his claim to lift 
up his voice to the nations in behalf of pity and humanity. 
Greater is he in this than any pope has been for centuries, 
— an example to the civilized world of Christian forgive- 
ness of injuries. 

Monsignor Macaire reached Adis Ababa, the present cap- 
ital of King Menelik, on August n, 1896. His journey 



x 










MARQUIS Dl RUDINI. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 417 

was arduous and dangerous, and, as another caravan, led by 

two priests, who were endeavoring to carry supplies to the 

prisoners, had met with misfortunes, it was greatly feared 

that Monsignor Macaire's embassy might have met a similar 

fate. A letter received by Cardinal Rampolla, secretary of 

state for the Holy See, on Monday, September 28, 1896, 

and published by order of Pope Leo in the " Osservatore 

Romano " the next morning, will give all that is thus far 

known of the expedition. 

"Adis Ababa, August 14, 1896. 

"Your Eminence, — I write from Adis Ababa, the capital 
of the empire of Abyssinia, and have the honor to inform you 
that we have been here since last Tuesday, August 11. Our 
journey has been most fortunate, thanks to the protection of the 
Most High and to the benediction of the Holy See. 

" His Majesty the Emperor Menelik has here received us with 
all the honors due to the dignity of the Apostolic Church. He 
sent to meet us, on the day of our arrival, a numerous escort 
of about one hundred and fifty soldiers, having at their head sev- 
eral native chiefs, and Monsieur Ilg, engineer in chief especially 
charged by his Majesty to bid us welcome in his name. The 
next day, Wednesday, August 12, at about eleven o'clock in 
the day, the Emperor gave us a solemn audience. I went to 
the imperial palace escorted by all the Abyssinian clergy of 
Adis Ababa, to the number of not less than fifty. I was re- 
ceived by the Emperor in the presence of his court. When I 
oresented the pontifical letters to his Majesty, I stated to him 
he object of my mission; that is, that the Holy See placed 
confidence in the generosity of the descendant of King David, 
who is praised in Scripture for his lovingkindness and mercy. 
That the Sovereign Pontiff had chosen as his ambassador to 
his Majesty the head of the Coptic Church, both hoping thereby 
to avoid any suspicion of a political purpose in the mission, and 
because he thereby hoped to awaken, in the memory of the 
Emperor of Ethiopia, kindly thoughts connected with religion. 
Rome and Alexandria come before him, I said, on this mission. 
We present the united request of Saint Peter, foremost of the 
Apostles, and of Saint Mark, who was both his spiritual son 
and the spiritual father of both Copts and Abyssinians; in 
their name we solicit from his Majesty the release of all the 
prisoners. All Christian nations venture to hope that he who 
spontaneously gave to the Sovereign Pontiff marks of his royal 
courtesy on the occasion of his accession to Saint Peter's 

27 



41 8 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

throne, will not refuse him the boon which his Holiness this 
day solicits by the mouth of an ambassador extraordinary. 
Then I ended by a prayer to God, in whose hands are the 
hearts of kings, to inspire in his Majesty all that might do 
honor to the greatness of a Christian Emperor, and to the 
dignity of the Holy See. The Emperor answered me in these 
terms : ' The Pope is the Father of us all. He has the right to 
write to us, and to express to us all he may desire. We will see 
each other again, and we will then talk further on this subject.' 
With that, I took leave of his Majesty, hoping that God would 
preserve his life for the glory and happiness of Ethiopia. These 
details may give your Eminence an idea of the delicacy of the 
great Emperor. That same day, the day of the audience, he 
sent us in the evening, to be attached to our service, a man who 
had been cook to General Baratieri. All the prisoners that we 
have seen are in good health, and speak in the most touching 
terms of the kindness with which they are treated by the Em- 
peror, — indeed on every feast day a repast is prepared for 
them in the imperial palace. As for their liberation, we who 
have witnessed the greatness of the Negus, and the nobleness 
of his character, venture to hope that we may soon announce to 
the Holy See the happy news which will comfort so many poor 
mothers and will add to the glory of his Majesty. 

" In conclusion, I beg your Eminence to lay this letter at the 
feet of his Holiness, and to solicit for us his apostolic benedic- 
tion, that Jesus Christ our Lord may finish the work thai He has 
thus begun. 

" The very humble and devoted servant of your Eminence, 
">{< Cyrille Macaire, Bishop and Patriarchal Vicar 
of the Copts." 

The selection of this semi- oriental envoy, so skilled in 
compliments likely to be acceptable to such a monarch as 
the Negus, certainly shows the great care with which Pope 
Leo can choose his instruments, besides which, the hier- 
archical position of Monsignor Macaire, as the so-called suc- 
cessor of St. Mark, and the man who on the death of the 
present Patriarch of Alexandria will be his successor, must 
have lent an especial importance and interest to the mission 
in the eyes of the ruler of Abyssinia. The reply of the 
Negus was certainly somewhat sibylline, but, as the " Tablet " 
says, " is of a nature to afford grounds for hope." 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 419 

What the Vicar Patriarchal of Alexandria says of the con- 
dition and treatment of the prisoners must be a great conso- 
lation to their families, being in direct contradiction to the 
reports, circulated for some months past in the Italian papers, 
that they were daily dying from hunger, hardships, fever, 
and suicide. Let us trust that before these pages reach 
the hands of my readers we may receive news of the release 
of all these unfortunates. 

Unhappily, Italy pays no pensions to her maimed or 
disabled soldiers. Those who return thus afflicted from 
Abyssinia will have to be supported at the expense of their 
relatives, for the most part poor peasants hardly able to pay 
taxes and to support themselves. 

Before the arrival of Monsignor Macaire at Adis Ababa, 
a society of Roman ladies had obtained from King Menelik 
the release of about fifty prisoners, who are described as 
having reached Italy in good health and good condition. 
It had been confidently asserted that the influence of Russia 
at the court of the Negus would be exerted to put obstacles 
in the way of the prisoners' release, and frustrate peace 
negotiations. But the interest taken by the Czar in the 
marriage of Princess Helene of Montenegro with the heir 
to the throne of Italy, seems to indicate a desire to help 
Italy out of her difficulties rather than to aggravate them. 

Meantime, however, the great question of peace or war, 
with its contingent considerations of taxation and conscrip- 
tion, appears to offer little promise of solution. 

King Menelik's terms of peace are not considered such 
as can be entertained by the court and people of Italy, and 
General Baldissera, now governor of Eritrea, has been in 
consultation during the summer with ministers at home. It 
seems decided that Eritrea shall be restricted within the 
frontier it possessed in 1892 before the military exploits, 
brilliant or disastrous, of General Baratieri. But Baldissera, 
who is a man of experience and moderation, stated openly 
his conviction that no less than 70,000 men, well supplied 
with all military stores, would be necessary to defend the 
colony, even within its restricted limits, if attacked by a 



420 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

large and determined force of Abyssinians. Of course, so 
large a body of men as General Baldissera considers indis- 
pensable to make the frontiers of Eritrea safe, could not be 
all Italians, but it would be necessary, in order to keep up 
the army reserve in Italy imposed by the terms of the Triple 
Alliance, to draw largely on the resources of the country for 
fighting men. 

This opinion of General Baldissera seemed, some weeks 
ago, to have reopened the question how to get rid of Eritrea 
without loss of honor, and how to retain Massowah as a 
commercial station, though its value in that respect has 
been considerably lessened by the opening of new ports 
on the Indian Ocean, more accessible to caravans from 
the interior. 

Two articles recently published in the " Fortnightly Re- 
view " have attracted great attention to Italy. One is by 
Ouida, and is a passionate arraignment of Italy for her short- 
comings. It cannot be denied that United Italy has greatly 
disappointed the hopes formed for her when Cavour held 
the helm of state and great men sprang up around Victor 
Emmanuel. The other article is by Mr. J. Theodore Bent, 
whose books on "The Ruined Cities in Mashonaland " and 
on "A Journey through parts of Abyssinia in 1893 " have 
been of great use to me. He speaks of Eritrea as a colony 
perfectly worthless. It has neither mines nor agricultural 
facilities. The Italian government has spent large sums in 
agricultural experiments, without any prospect of making 
the colony anything but an enormous expense to the tax- 
payers in Italy. We call it a colony, but it contains no 
more than a handful of colonists, and there is nothing to 
attract them to its soil. Mr. Bent says that Northern and 
Southern Italy are sharply divided in opinion on the African 
question. 

" Broadly speaking," he says, " the advocates of the Abyssi- 
nian colony, and the war-to-extremity party, are to be found in 
the southern provinces of Italy; the principal organs for the 
continuation of the war and the retrieval of the honor of Italy 
are the Neapolitan journals, whereas the advocates of peace at 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 42 1 

any price, and the abandonment of colonial honors, are to be 
found in the north of Italy, in the plains of Lombardy and 
Venice, where the newspapers are taking up a unanimous line 
on this point. The question is a burning one at present there, 
and it is distinctly assuming the aspect of a struggle between 
the north and south of the peninsula." 

Italy has, as I have said, another African colony more 
fertile and promising south of Abyssinia, to which she has 
just despatched large military and naval reinforcements. 
She purchased a considerable tract of it from the Sultan of 
Zanzibar, and it is separated from British East Africa by 
the Jub, or Juba, river. It is in a dangerous position, 
however, being almost without defence if King Menelik, 
descending from mountains in the Galla country, should 
think good to attack it. It is also a near neighbor to 
Obok, that tiny settlement which the French hope to make 
some day not only a Red Sea outlet to a vast Saharian 
empire, but possibly a stepping-stone to great possessions 
in Western Asia. It had been hoped that Italy's African 
possessions might attract the emigration now overflowing 
into the United States and Argentina, but Eritrea offers too 
few attractions either to capitalists, artisans, small traders, 
or agricultural laborers. It is simply an unprofitable tract 
of country that absorbs soldiers who might be more profit- 
ably employed. 

Ouida enlarges on the destitution and discontent of the 
laboring classes; on their inability to understand why 
revolt, to whose heroes statues are being erected and fetes 
proclaimed, should have been right under the Austrians 
and Bourbons, and their imitation under the Savoy dynasty 
worthy only of fines and chains. She has a great deal to 
say, too, of the brutality and exasperating interference of 
the police, whose business it seems to be to treat all men 
as if they belonged to the criminal class in the absence of 
evidence to the contrary. This attitude of the police in 
Europe towards the general public, always impresses itself 
on an American or an Englishman. « I first felt I was in 
a land of freedom," wrote an Italian exile, "when, on 



422 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

landing at Dover, a policeman held out his hand and 
helped me up some slippery stairs." 

Ouida gives, as an instance of police brutality, the story 
of a man killed this summer in Parma, whose murder 
excited a riot in that city. His name was Cassinelli. 

" He had been in prison under frivolous charges and was 
subject to police surveillance, had lost work through this, and 
when a barber engaged him on the miserable wage of one 
meal a day, the police intimidated his employer, who discharged 
him. Then they arrested the unhappy man as a vagrant with- 
out employment. He resisted, was shot in the abdomen, and 
dragged over the stones towards the police barracks, dying on 
his way thither. The populace in the streets endeavored to 
rescue him, and when they found he was dead they attacked 
the police. . . . Harmless citizens are irritated, insulted and 
provoked about any trifle that presents itself. Any man who 
says an angry word to the police on such occasions is marched 
off to the police court, and from that moment is a marked 
man." 

But, as I write, all causes of discontent are laid aside ; 
the great African question is forgotten ; all Italy is engaged 
in afesta, — for is not the heir of the house of Savoy celebrat- 
ing his nuptials after great difficulty in finding a bride, for 
the Catholic Princesses of Europe were afraid to ally them- 
selves with a royal house under the displeasure of the Holy 
See. 

At the ceremony of the coronation of the Czar and 
Czarina, the young Prince of Naples, who was present, 
met the Princess H£lene of Montenegro. She was almost 
brought up at the Russian court, for the court of Cettinje 
offered few facilities for education. She was a great 
favorite with the Dowager Empress of Russia, widow of 
Alexander III., and formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark, 
sister of the Princess of Wales. The Czar, observing that 
the Prince was attracted by the brunette beauty of the tall 
and stately Montenegrin lady, suggested that his marriage 
with one so nearly connected with the Russian court would 
be very agreeable to him. This seemed politically an offer 
of amity on the part of Russia to a member of the Triple 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 423 

Alliance. The Prince spoke upon this hint, and was 
accepted. The Czar, as head of the Orthodox Greek 
Church, sanctioned the necessary change in the form of 
the Princess's religion. This pleased Pope Leo, who was 
anxious to draw closer the bonds of amity between Russia 
and the Holy See, — the Eastern and Western churches. 
The Princess is very accomplished, speaking fluently the 
four principal European languages. She has also written 
verses of more than average merit, published in the news- 
papers of St. Petersburg. 

In a previous volume of this series, 1 I gave a brief sketch 
of the little principality in the Black Mountains, its reign- 
ing family, its people's brave resistance to the Turks, and 
its government, " carried on," said Mr. Gladstone, " like 
that of Greece in the Homeric age. The sovereign was 
priest, judge, and general, and was likewise head of the 
General Assembly of the people, in which were taken the 
decisions which were to bind the nation as laws." Mr. 
Gladstone said also of Montenegro in a sketch he pub- 
lished of it in the " Nineteenth Century " : " It is a land 
which might have risen to world-wide and immortal fame 
had there been a Scott to learn to tell the marvels of its 
history, or a Byron to spend and be spent on its behalf." 

The Princess is above the usual stature of women, — 
quite as tall as her bridegroom, who is about five feet ten. 
She has coal-black hair and flashing eyes like those of her 
people, and a superb figure. She landed at Bari on 
October 19, after a stormy passage across the Adriatic. 
She went straight to the Basilica of St. Nicholas, where the 
Saint himself is buried, and there before a silver altar, 
renovated for the occasion by silversmiths from the Qui- 
rinal, she made her abjuration, and heard mass according 
to the rites of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

Bari is a city which has more Greek associations than 
any other in the peninsula. To judge by a proclamation 
put forth by the municipality, it must have many other 
associations with the Middle Ages. 

1 Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century. 



424 ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Here is the edict, which was posted on the walls of the 
principal thoroughfares : 

" Citizens of Bari : 

u It is your duty to clean the streets of all unseemly mud. 

"Used and tattered washing linen must be taken away from 
the windows. 

" Little children must no longer run naked in the streets. 

u Goats, cows, hens, and drunken men must be kept at a pro- 
per distance. 

" No dust bins may for three weeks be emptied in the 
streets. 

" Licensed coachmen are forbidden to wear ragged liveries, 
and are advised to borrow police uniforms. 

u Let these things be done, and our citizens will prove them- 
selves worthy of their ancestors, and our city will be duly gar- 
nished for greeting our royal bride." 1 

The Princess went on the next day to Rome, attended 
by a large body of ecclesiastics, as well as her own friends 
and the nobles and ladies appointed to receive her. The 
Prince, who had crossed with her to Bari from Cattaro, 
was not present at her abjuration. He hurried on to 
Rome, where with his father, mother, relatives, and the 
Court he was ready to receive her on her arrival. 

On Saturday, October 24, amid great rejoicings, the 
Prince and Princess were married at the ancient church of 
Santa Maria dei Angeli, which in some way is connected 
with the House of Savoy. 

The altar was placed in the centre of the Church, and 
under the transparent baldacchino hangings, was placed 
Titian's Assumption of the Virgin, brought from Venice for 
the purpose. "Modern ruins" were cleared away from 
the piazza before the church, an arch was erected at the 
entrance, and all the streets through which the bridal party 
passed were richly decorated. 

Thus all in Italy for the present is merry with marriage 

1 " Quite as applicable to Brindisi," said a traveller, recently re- 
turned from the East, as I read out this proclamation with much 
amusement and some surprise. — E. W. L. 







THE PRINCESS OF NAPLES. 



THE ITALIANS IN ABYSSINIA. 425 

bells, and no doubt the popolani, who love festivities, and 
take little thought for the morrow, have enjoyed them 
greatly. But the expenses of the marriage must have been 
enormous, though King Humbert requested that no money 
might be spent on fetes by the municipality of Rome. 
Still, one is sorry to see that Parliament is about to vote a 
million lire to the bridegroom, and a similar sum as dowry 
to the bride. There are so many suffering Italians that 
one would have been glad to know some were made happy 
by the expenditure of such millions in other ways. 

Let us hope, however, that a new and brighter day may 
be about to dawn on Italy, — that some friendly Power 
may intervene to help her out of her colonial difficulties in 
Africa. Already during the last weeks a little piece of 
better fortune has befallen her, — a treaty with France 
concerning Tunis, which restores to the traders of Italy 
important commercial advantages. 



POSTSCRIPT. 

While these pages have been going through the press, events 
have occurred which require some mention to bring this M His- 
tory of Italy in the Nineteenth Century " up to date. 

Monsignor Macaire reported to the Vatican that King Mene- 
lik. after protesting his devotion to the Pope, maintained that, 
while the Italian Government continued in its attitude of hos- 
tility toward Abyssinia, he was unable to sacrifice the sole 
guarantee of peace that he held by restoring to liberty the 
Italian prisoners. A few days, however, after the publication 
of this refusal in the American papers came news that peace 
had been signed with King MeneHk. by which Italy renounced 
her nominal protectorate over Abyssinia. 

The world has also been astounded by the revelation of a 
diplomatic secret by Prince Bismarck which has roused the 
indignation of the weaker partners in the Triple Alliance. The 
terms of that alliance were agreed on as early as 1SS2, and in 
the following year the treaty was practically made, though it 
was not till 1887 that it was formally signed. Italy had, how- 
ever, since 1S83, been straining her resources to meet the obliga- 
tions of her engagement, while it now appears that Russia and 
Germany from 1S84 to 1S90 had a secret alliance, by the terms 
of which it was agreed that, in case France should attack Ger- 
many. Russia would detach herself from France and aid Ger- 
many ; and, in case Austria should attack Russia, the Emperor 
of Germany would abandon the Triple Alliance and come to 
the assistance of the Czar, thus leaving the weaker Powers, 
Austria and Italy, to derive no advantage from the Triple 
Alliance, to maintain which they had made such sacrifices, and 
exposing them unaided to bear all the fatal consequences of a 
general European war. 

I take this opportunity of offering an apology to my own sex. 
and to Miss Georgina Sarah Godkin, for having attributed 
her excellent " Life of Victor Emmanuel," which I have for 
some years known and valued, to an imaginary- G. S. Godkin. 
Esquire. 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 



Abba Garima (or Carima), battle of, 
412-414. 

Abyssinia, 395, 396, 397, 399, 400 ; 
after King John's death, 407 ; Ital- 
ian protectorate over, 399, 407 ; Ital- 
ians invade, 398 ; Italian advance 
into, 407; proposals to restrict ad- 
vances into, 411; Italian prisoners 
in, 414, 415-419. 

Adis Ababa, 417, 418. 

Agordat, battle of, 410. 

Alala, Ras, 400, 403, 404, 405, 408. 

Albert, Prince Consort, 173, 213, 269. 

Albrecht, Archduke, 257, 258,259, 281. 

Alliance (1865) between Italy and 
Prussia, 274 ; declined with France 
by Italy and Austria, 310, 311; 
Triple, between Italy, Germany and 
Austria, 382, 387, 389-394, 425. 

Alison, Sir Archibald, quoted, 106, 10S, 
109. 

Alessandria, 95, 204, 317. 

Alexander, Emperor, 27, 60, 61. 

Amadeo, King of Spain, Duke d'Aosta, 
175, 300, 302. 

Amalfi, 11. 

Amba Alagi, 412, 413. 

Amnesty, 43-47. 

Angevin kings of Naples, 13. 

Anita, wife of Garibaldi, 139, 142, 144, 
146, 149, 215. 

Annichiarico, Ciro. 352-356, 357. 

Antonelli, Cardinal, 50, 58, 323, 335, 
336, 339- 

Arad, 169, 285. 



Arnim, Count v., 315. 

Arpad, 154. 

Aspromonte, battle of, 248. 

Assab, Bay of, 396. 

Attila, 152. 

Augustenborg, Prince of, 268. 

Austria, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21,26, 27, 56, 
6 3> 6 4> 79, 8o > 160, 173, 256. 265, 
310, 312 ; after 1866, 283, 284, 286 ; 
Imperial family of, 281. 

Austro-Hungary, 286, 287, 310. 

Azani F., 141, 142. 



B. 

Baldissera, General, 419, 420. 
Bandiera, Enrico and Attilio, 37, 2^, 

39, 80. 
Baratieri, General Oreste, 408-414. 
Bari, 9, 10, 423, 424. 
Barsante, 304. 

Bassi, Ugo, 123, 128,129,145-149,384. 
Batthyani, Prince, 162, 169. 
Beauharnais, Eugene, 16-20. 
Belgioioso, Princess, 129. 
Bern, General, 165, 169. 
Benedek, Marshal, 209, 279, 281. 
Benedetti, 282. 
Bent, J. Theodore, quoted, 143, 145, 

146, 227, 230, 252, 291, 420, 421. 
Beust, Count, 302. 
Biserta, 391. 
Bismarck, V., 270-273, 280, 282, 295, 

3io> 389- 
Bixio, Nino, 225, 226, 242, 308, 313, 
3*8, 375- 



43Q 



INDEX. 



Blackwood's Magazine, quoted, 352. 

Blind, Karl, quoted, 289. 

Bomba. See Ferdinand II. 

Bordone, 305. 

Borghi, quoted, 337, 338. 

Borjes, General, 366. 

Brescia, 115, 116, 210. 

Brigandage, 241, 350-352, 357-365 5 

political, 365-370. 
Brindisi, 424. 
Broughton, Lord, quoted, 17, 20, 27, 

180. 
Browning, Robert, 84; Mrs. E. B. 

Browning, quoted, 112; 113, 118- 

121; "The forced Recruit," 209, 

210. 
Byron, Lord, 20, 21 ; quoted, 79. 



Cadorna, General, 293, 3I3 , 314, 317 , 

318. 

Cairoli, brothers, 296 ; Benedetto, 308, 
377, 380-382, 396. 

Calataiimi, battle of, 227. 

Camorra, 350, 351, 37i~373> 3 8 7- 

Campo Formio (1797), 21, 79. 

Canzio, Colonel, 240, 241, 262, 295, 
308. 

Caprera, 147, 215, 241, 305-308. 

Captures by brigands, 370. 

Carbonari, 21, 22, 32, 33, 36, 94, 98. 

Carlyle, quoted, 29. 

Caroline, Queen of Naples, 59-61. 

Casa Guidi Windows, 118-121, 129. 

Cassinelli, 422. 

Castelfidardo, battle of, 235, 364. 

Castlereagh, Lord, 20, 25, 61. 

Cavaignac, General, 126. 

Cavour, Count Camillo, 29, 81, 100, 
101, 178, 183-186, 196, 199, 200, 203, 
212-214,229, 230, 238, 239, 240-245, 
259, 32i, 377, 384- 

Central Italy, 15, 108, 212-214, 216- 
221. 

Cesaresco, Countess Martinengo, 
quoted, 22, 37, 51, 57, 72, 73, 76, 
83, 84, 104, 115, 116, 124, 125, 183, 
184, 216, 240, 241, 263, 310. 

Charette, Colonel, 313. 

Charlemagne, 9, 14, 298. 



Charles Albert, 25, 26, 29, 30, 69, 83. 

92-99, 102, 105, 106, 107-109, in, 

112, 120, 143, 173, 182, 183. 
Charles Emmanuel IV., 24. 
Charles Felix, 24, 25, 26, 93, 94, 96, 

97, 100. 
Charles V., 159. 
Chateaubriand, quoted, 94. 
Charvaz, Archbishop, 174, 181. 
Christian, Prince of Gliicksborg, 268. 
Christina of Courland, 92, 93. 
Christina of Savoy, 64. 
Church, General, 352, 353, 355. 
Cialdini, General, 243, 247, 248. 
Ciceruacchio, 49, 56,57, 123, 124, 125, 

145, 149; his sons, 145, 149. 
Clarendon, Lord, 312, 313. 
Cleveland, President, 334. 
Clotilde, Princess, 175, 201-203, 255, 

301. 
Cobden, Richard, 81, 184. 
Confalonieri, 99. 
Confederation of Italy proposed, 32, 

33, 213. 
Congress of Paris (1812), 60, 61, 62; 

of Verona (1822), 26, 27; of Vienna 

(1815), 79- 
Cosenz, General Enrico, 86, 88, 229, 

3i3- 
Crawford, F. Marion, 43, 294 ; Mrs. 

Crawford, letter from, 43-45. 
Crimean War, Italian troops in, 90, 

184, 185. 
Crispi, Francesco, 224, 308, 378, 380- 

3 8 3> 39°, 393. 409-411, 4 J 4- 
Crown, Iron, of Lombardy, 17, 264, 

310; of St. Stephen, 154-158, 287. 
Curci, Father, 340, 341, 345"347- 
Custozza, first battle, 69, 70, 106; 

second battle, 245, 257, 258. 



D. 



Dabormida, General, 174 ; in Abys- 
sinia, 413. 

Dante, 14, 15, 79, 275, 2 76. 

Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, 331. 

D'Azeglio, 81, 100, 101; quoted, 143, 
178, 180, 181, 182, 183, 321, 349, 

365; 384- 
Deak, Francis, 162, 285-288. 



INDEX. 



431 



Dembinski, General, 165, 169. 

Denmark, 267, 268, 273. 

Depretis, 378, 379, 3 So - 

D'Ideville, quoted, 242. 

Dogali, 400-403. 

Drouyn de Lhuys, quoted, 291. 

Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, 328, 

33*- 
Durando, General, 84, 106, III. 
Durazzo, battle of, 12. 



E. 



Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, 287- 

289. 
Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, 155- 

158. 
Emilia. See Central Italy. 
English expedition to Abyssinia, 400; 

send mission to, 386; advance on 

Dongola, 415. 
Eritrea, 396, 399, 407, 409, 419, 420, 

421. 
Erythrea. See Eritrea. 
Eugenie, Empress, 302, 312. 
Eugene. See Beauharnais. 



F. 



Fanti, General, 235, 238, 541. 
Farini, quoted, 63, 73, 254. 
Ferdinand Albert Amadeo, Duke of 

Genoa, 69, 70, 102, no, 181. 
Ferdinand I., King of Naples, 13, 27, 

59-63, 69-74. 
Ferdinand II. (Bomba), 28, 64, 65, 66, 

69-74, 83, 131, 132. 
Ferdinand VII., King of Spain, 61. 
Finns, 153. 

Fleury, General, 210, 211, 367. 
Florence, 97, 113-121, 255, 321. 
Fonzella, ex-brigand, 368-370. 
Forlimpopoli, 362, 363. 
Fortnightly Review, 371, 420. 
France and the Roman Republic, 57, 

58, 126, 127, 128, 132. 
Francis I., Emperor of Austria, 26, 27, 

100, 165. 
Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, 

165, 210, 284, 287, 288, 322, 323. 



Francis I., King of Naples, 28, 60, 61, 
63, 64. 

Francis II., King of Naples, 219, 231, 
2 34, 240,241,365. 

Francis, Duke of Modena, 31-36. 

Frederick William III., King of Prus- 
sia, 269. 

Frederick William IV., King of Prus- 
sia, 269, 270. 

Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia 
and Emperor of Germany, 278- 
281. 

Frederick Charles (Red Prince) 278- 
281. 

Free Cities, 14, 15, 267. 

French occupation of Italy (1797- 
1815), 15-17, 20,21 ; in Rome (1848), 
57, 58 ; land in Piedmont (1866), 
205 ; quit Rome (Dec. 4, 1866), 
290 ; troops again despatched to 
Rome (1867), 295 ; evacuate Rome 
(1870), 312. 

Fuller, Margaret, Marchesa d'Ossoli, 
30, 57, 118, 129, 130, 135, 189. 

Fumel Major, 366, 367. 



Gaeta, 214, 368. 

Gambetta, L6on, 303, 304. 

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 29, 108, 122, 125, 
126, 128, 129- 131, 137-149, 214, 
215, 222-224, 226-232, 236-239, 
240-243, 244, 248, 249, 250-254, 
261-264, 291-299, 300, 303-308, 
309; quoted, 314. 

Garibaldi's hymn, 252. 

Genoa, 14, 16, 23. 24, 27, 95, 178. 

George, King of Hanover, 275-277. 

Germany before 1800, 266, 267; 
emperors of, .265. 

Gibson, Mr., quoted, T30, 131. 

Gioberti, 178, 340, 343, 348. 

Gladstone, W E , 65', 66, 74, 75, 254, 
386 ; 387, 391, 423. 

Godkin, G. S., 174; quoted, 73, 93, 
178, 208, 209, 210, 237, 3. 5. 

Gorgey, General Arthur, 165, 167, 
168. 

Gregory XVI., 28, 40, 339, 357. 

Guarantees, 318-320. 



♦33 



rXDEX 



Gmscard. Robert, n. xi\ Roger of 

r : : : :: ': . iz: : : '. - : .ti :: 
3c :.- 3rCrrci ::f : :•: 

3; -_C 3iCi-C- ::: ICC 



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Hcrcc .ere Dec ce. f_ :; 



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.- Arccci. _:; ;: A^ic: - ;-: 

:--:- - 

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5 :.:-.;- :::--:; :: 
::-:-: xc: __ : 
rrcncc. ;:- 



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recce- ; - ; _:: .:;-_:: 



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Eccrcerc a±iz :i I^y :"f ?:<: 

;:: : :_ ;;; ;---;-." ::: 

_ : _c : 

H .".""■ : • :ry : : : • ■ - 

: : : " : z~z z irc.es in : 5-j.i :fc 

: : _ : : : : c i ._- : : - re : : ecc c r : ■ 

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3 ." ' ' - 

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.~z " "" ~ 5 .c :~t . rcrcece: :: 

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Friccccsc. _: ere cess :. 



Fl.r r :f _- :-izi :: :-::* 

cc:_c cc^ckc- ::' ::; 
Lc :Icccc :~ .:rCr." ::: ::; iz~ 
146, - :: 5. 2&2, afij, 

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3;-t:i. :;: z i r_i 

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- - - - ■ ' 



INDEX. 



433 



Leo IX., 10, ii. 

Leo XII., 334, 338. 

Leo XIII., 235, 333, 334, 337-340, 
34 x -345> 347, 34$, 35 6 > 357, 4*5> 4*6, 
41S, 423; as a poet, 34S ; on infalli- 
bility, 333. 

Leonine City, 315, 317, 318. 

Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 26, 
69, 102, 116-121, 213. 

Leopold of Belgium, 339. 

Lesseps, Count Ferdinand de, 132- 

134- 

Lissa, battle of, 260, 261, 262. 

Louis Napoleon, Prince, 33-36, 57, 
58, 69, 127, 128, 134. See Napo- 
leon III. 

Louis Philippe, and non-intervention, 

3°, 3 1 - 
Lunenberg, 209, 267, 268. 
Lugard, Captain, 403, 404. 



M. 

Macaire, Monsignor Cyrille, 416-418; 

letter from, 417, 418. 
Madagascar, 399. 
Mafia, 351, 371-373- 
Magenta, battle of, 207. 
Magyars, 153-155, 159-161. 
Mala Vita, 351. 
Malghera, 85, 88. 
Mangashah, Ras, 408. 409, 411. 
Manin, Doge of Venice, 80. 
Manin, Daniele, 80-84, 88-91, 186, 

384. 
Manning, Cardinal, quoted, 328, 330, 

331. 337- 

Mantua, 18, 20, 35, 80. 

Manzcni, Alessandro, 15, 215, 321. 

Margherita, Queen of Italy, 300, 301, 
308, 3 2 4, 375,376, 515, 576. 

Maroncelli, Pietro, 23, 23. 

Maria Adelaide, wife of Victor Em- 
manuel, 175, 181, 1S2. 

Maria Louisa, ex-Empress, 26, 27. 

Maria Pia, Queen of Portuga 1 , 255, 
301. 

Marsala, 227. 

Massowah, 382, 396-399, 401, 402, 
407, 414, 420. 

Matthias Corvinus, 158, 159. 



Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, So, 

256, 260, 2S9. 
Mazzini, Giuseppe, 28, 29, 30, 37, 46, 

56, 58, 86, 108, 125-127, 130, 132, 

135, x 3 6 , 139, *43> I 90" I 93> J 96, 
224, 225, 229, 236, 247, 292, 304, 
321, 322, 3S4. 

Melazzo, battle of, 229. 

Menabrea, General, 295, 296, 310, 

3", 375- 

Menelik, Emperor (Negus) of Abys- 
sinia, 407, 408, 411, 414-419. 

Menotti, Ciro, 33, 34, 35, 60. 

Menotti Garibaldi, 140, 262, 298, 304, 

3°7- 
Mentana, 296-299, 309. 
Messina, 70, 71, 229. 
Metternich, Prince, 30, 46, 48, 93,94, 

99,268,270. 
Milan (181 5), 18, 19 (1848), 83, 103- 

109, 177, 201, 323 ; rising in, 1871, 

3°4- 
Minghetti, 81, 254. 
Minto, Lord, 68. 
Mirafiore, Rosina, Countess of, 301, 

376. 
Mississippi, U. S. man of war, 170. 
Moltke, Marshal v., quoted, 403. 
Montfresson, Rosalia, 3S2-. 
Monkullu, 398, 402, 405, 407. 
Mont Cenis, tunnel, 321. 
Montebello, battle of, 206. 
Montenegro, 423. 
Monte Rotondo, 296, 297. 
Monthly Packet, 352. 
Moro, Domenico, 38. 
Mundy, Admiral, 236, 239. 
Murat, 16, 17, 18, 60. 



N. 

Naples, Angevin kings in, 12, 13 ; give 
to Austria, 13; in 1848, 64, 65; re- 
action, 69; prisons in, 74, 75; con- 
stitution sworn to by Ferdinand I., 
60; constitution sworn to by Ferdi- 
nand II., 64, 65; invasion by Gari- 
baldi (1S60), 219, 230, 232-234; 
second invasion, 248, 249. 

Napoleon I., 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 79, 
268, 269. 



28 



434 



IXDEX. 



Napoleon III., 196-199, 201, 202, 206- 
208, 211. 21S. 221, 224, 246, 247, 
256, 25$. 272, 274. 2S2, 283, 290, 
292, 294, 295, 299, 300, 301, 302, 

3 IO > 3 IX > 3 I2 > 3 66 : 
Napoleon Louis, Prince, 31—36. 
NardL Anacars:. 38. 
•• Nation," quoted, 412-414, 415. 
Nice, in, 222. 225. 
Nicholas L, Emperor of Russia. 1S5. 
Nicholas II.. Emperor of Russia. 422. 
Nigra. Count. 203, 204. 
Normans in Naples, 9, ic. 11. 
Novara. 25, 26, 97; battle of. 11c. 111. 
Nugent. General, 115. 



O. 
Obok. 397. 421. 
O'Clery, The, quoted, 207, 20S, 315, 

316. 
Odone, Duke of Monferrat. 2:5. 
(Ecumenical Council, 311, 327-332. 
Oliphant, Lawrence, quoted, 48, 49, 

64, 65, 223. 224. 
Orsi. Count Joseph, quoted, 31. 32, 33. 
Orsini, Felice, 1SS-19S. 360. 
Osman Pasha, 169. 
Oudinot, General, 57, 128-130, 132, 
6. 



Ouida, 420, 421. 



P. 



Palermo. 66, 67, 68, 71. 72. 227. 228. 

Palestrina, fight at. 1 ;i. 

Palestro, battle of, 206, 207. 

Palmerston, Lord, 46 : quoted, 285. 

Palffy, Count, 81 , 82. 

Panslavism, 164. 

Pantaleone, Father. 227. 

Papal Army under Lamoriciere, 290, 

291, 564; under Kanzler, 314—317. 
Paris Commune, 307. 
Passatore. II. See Forlimpopoli. 
Peace of Utrecht (1713), 13 ; of Paris 

(l8l 4 ),2 7 . 

Peace of Villafranca (1S59), 213. 
Peace of Prague (1S66), 262, 283. 
Peard, Colonel. 232-234. 252. 
Pecci, Cardinal Giuseppe, 346. 
Pellico, Silvio, 21, 22, 23. 



Pepe, General. 61, 64, 69, 71, 84, 89; 

quoted, 112. 
Persano, Admiral, 22S, 235, 2^5. 259- 

261. 
Piedmont, 14. 16, 24, 25. 27 ; revolu- 
tion in, 95. 
Philibert Emmanuel, Duke d'Aosta, 

marries Princess Helene of Orleans, 

376. 
Pilo, Rosalino. 224, 225. 
Pio Nono, 41-53, 54-56, 58, 69. 123- 

126; 141. 142, 179. 1S0, 189, 307, 

3 I2 > 3*5, 3!6, 3 2 °> 3 2 3, 3 2 4> 3 2 9, 

33 J -33 6 ; 3 60 ; his funeral, 342, 343. 
Pius IX. See Pio Nono. 
Plebiscite, in Nice. 202, 222, 223. 224 : 

in Naples. 237 : in Venice, 263 ; in 

Rome, 317. 318. 
Plombieres, 199, 222. 
Poerio. Carlo. 72. 7:. 75. 76. 
" Politikos " quoted, 383, 3S4. 
Pope's temporal power, 13. 14. 15. 
PortaL Sir Gerald, 400-406, 40S. 
Prina, 17. 19, 20. 
Prisons, in Naples, 65, 66, 74. 36S : in 

Sicily 65, 66, 67. 
Probyn, J. W., quoted, 16, 39. 61, 62, 

1:7. 520,391,392. 
Prussia, 265, 268, 270, 272. 27^. 27:. 
Prussians on the march, 279, 280; 

return to Berlin. 283. 



Quadrilateral, 80, 105. 211. 
Quarterly Review, quoted, 3$ 

Queen Victoria, 354. 



R. 

i:_l. i:f . i: _ . 1::. 11:. 145. 175. 17:. 
Raihoads. in Venetia. Si. 



Ramorino, General, 



•&. lie. 



Rattazzi. iS^, 246, 293, 296, 321. 
Red Shirts, 130, 22:. 237 
Restoration of Italian princes (1S49). 

173, 214. 215. 
Revolutionarv parties in Italv (1S4S), 

83- 



INDEX. 



435 



Ricasoli, Baron, 126, 242, 245, 246, 
293, 295,321,384. 

Ricciotti, 3S. 

Ricciotti Garibaldi, 140, 262, 304, 305. 

Robert Guiscard, 11, 12. 

Robilant, 382, 390. 

Roger Guiscard, 11, 12. 

Roger Guiscard II., 12, 59. 

Romagna, 16, 33, 34. 

Roman Republic, 56, 57, 58, 124; 
Constituent Assembly, 56, 124, 125, 
128, 135, 136 ; deposes the Pope, 
125 ; volunteers, 84, 100, 106; rela- 
tions of France to. 126. 

Romans, 314. 

Rome (1847), 43, 44,45, (1848) 48-52, 
(1S49) 5 6 -5 s > ( X S67) 290 ; besieged 
by the French, 126-129, 134-137; 
evacuated by the French, 311 ; re- 
entered by the French, 315-318. 

Rosas, 140, 141. 

Rossi, Count Pellegrino, 46, 47, 48, 
50, 51. 

Roselli, General, 131. 

Rouher, 309. 

Rudini, Marquis di, 293, 414, 416. 

Rudolph, Crown Prince of Austria, 
289. 

Ruffini, 37, 66. 

" Rule of the Monk," 264, 314. 

Russell, Lord John, 218. 

Russia in Hungary, 164, 165, 166, 286 ; 
influence in Abyssinia, 407. 



Sadowa, battle of, 258, 265, 279, 280, 
281. 

Sahati, 400, 401. 

Salerno, n. 

Sanfedesti, 46. 

San Martino, 209. 

Santa Rosa, 179, 180. 

Sardinia, 13, 24. 

Savoy, house of, 24, 25, 174, 384; in- 
vaded, 37 ; ar.d Nice, cession of, 
201, 202, 214. 219, 222, 223. 

Saxony, 276, 277, 27S. 

Schwartzenberg, Prince, 285. 

Secret Societies, 349—331. 



Senior, Nassau, quoted, 14, 60, "j^i 74> 

75, 180. 
Settembrini, 75-78. 
Seven Weeks' War, 265, 278. 
Sicardi Laws, 179, 180. 
Sicilian Parliament, 61, 68. 
Sicilian Vespers, 12. 
Sicily, 10-13, 2 3> 59, 66, 67, 69, 70- 

72, 224-230, 248. 
Sigismund, Emperor, 24, 155. 
Slavs, 155. 

Solferino, battle of, 209. 
Somaliland, Italian possessions in, 421. 
South American republics, war in, 

I39-" 1 -* 1 - 
Spain, !3> 3 1 , 5 2 > 54~5 6 > 5 8 > 61. 
Spanish Constitution (of 1820), 21, 

61, 95. 
Spaur, Count and Countess, 52-55. 
Spectator, quoted, 253, 254, 321. 
Stanley, H. M., quoted, 399. 
Stefani, Agostino, 85-88. 
Stephen, Archduke and Palatine, 162. 
Stephen, St., 154. See Crown of St. 

Stephen. 
Story, Mrs. William, quoted, 129. 
Strosmeyer, Bishop, quoted, 331, 332. 
Sutherland, Duke of, 251. 



T. 

" Tablet," quoted, 418. 

Tancred the Crusader, 12. 

Tancred de Hauteville and his sons, 

10-12. 
Taxation in Italy, 292, 301, 388. 
Tegethoff, Admiral, 260, 261. 
Theresita, Garibaldi's daughter, 140, 

240, 241, 307. 
Thiers, 309 ; quoted, 178, 303. 
Thurm, General, 88. 
Tommaseo, 81. 
Toselli, Major, 412. 
Treaty of Paris (1 814), 27; of Campo 

Formio (1797), 79; of Villafranca 

(1859), 213; of Prague (1866), 283. 
Triple Alliance, 382, -^,-j, 389-394, 425. 
Tuckerman, Henry, quoted, 23. 
Tunis, 395. 425. 
Tunnel under Mont Cenis, 321. 
Turin, 254, 255. 



-'/ 



IXDEX. 



U. 



' , , i : ;: 

Veneris 2: ;: : : . : :: ::: ; : : 

-r 

Venice, 14, 16, 20, 21, 69, 79, 80, 81, 

V-r;-i I :rrvr;s .:. 1: 2- 

' ::;: Z 2: 22 2 2. 2el I 2j.. -: ;- _-; 

Victor Emmanuel II.. King of Italy, 

- _ ::: ::: ::; ::_ :- ;- 

- :- ' :-: ::-:-:::- 

203,204-2:: ::: ::_ 2 :: 21.-22:. 

222. 235 :;-:; 242 :_; :_: 

249 :_:_. ::: : : _ 2- ; :: ;:: 

;:: 522-32. ;-_ 
".:::; z.: 22222. z± r .... :t :: 1 ":.; i 

;:: |22 _:_ .:; 

: ■■ i - : 

_ :~ ~f55 II _ : 

V.lLiiYiz : a n~:i~:a 2i:-2i: 2i::r 

: : : ::: 
Vfflagos, i6/ T 168. 

".";;-:-: ainle ::" ±t :;: 



W. 

V;_Z:2~. Kir.r ::'?.-.= : 2 :-: :-• 
: ; Z222tr:: : 

:-: 

Windischgratz. PrLr. : 7 164 27c a&f 



Ytar :::: : --; : : j: : :: :: : 
: .;: 2* : ;: _ ::; 

: :: : :; 105 : : 184 : : - 17a 
:-; 1862-1864 ;_: 255 25:: 
18c- : : 292, 293. 

I. M., "Book of Golden 
Deeds," quoted. 15; ; ■ Monthly 
? -■:-: y : 2 



Zz~:i_\: ::!:-=: Mirzele. jf "-jf 4 
ZollTerein, 269. 

French, 2c6 T 207; Papal, 

- - - : : " 






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